honey
New Bee
Hi everyone,
I've had my small cast a few weeks now & have been feeding them sugar syrup with a rapid feeder, as instructed by the person I inherited them from.
I've been checking it every 3-4 days and most of the feed has gone by then, so I've been re-filling accordingly. I have been finding a couple of drowned bees occasionally, but was told this is normal. I've been thinking this might be because I was re-filling too quickly and not giving the bees at the liquid level time to get out of the way? So now I'm doing it ever so slowly and hopefully that will make a difference.
My question is - so far I've just been topping up or re-filling, but should I be removing the feeder and cleaning it occasionally? Would any drowned bees contaminate the feed for the others?
I've fished them out & disposed of them, but there was some funny clear foamy/frothy stuff attached to them that seemed to be coming out from their behinds!! Don't get me wrong, it's only been the odd one or two, but I'm worried it will contaminte the feed.
So do you think I should be cleaning out the feeder and if so, how often?
Thanks
I've had my small cast a few weeks now & have been feeding them sugar syrup with a rapid feeder, as instructed by the person I inherited them from.
I've been checking it every 3-4 days and most of the feed has gone by then, so I've been re-filling accordingly. I have been finding a couple of drowned bees occasionally, but was told this is normal. I've been thinking this might be because I was re-filling too quickly and not giving the bees at the liquid level time to get out of the way? So now I'm doing it ever so slowly and hopefully that will make a difference.
My question is - so far I've just been topping up or re-filling, but should I be removing the feeder and cleaning it occasionally? Would any drowned bees contaminate the feed for the others?
I've fished them out & disposed of them, but there was some funny clear foamy/frothy stuff attached to them that seemed to be coming out from their behinds!! Don't get me wrong, it's only been the odd one or two, but I'm worried it will contaminte the feed.
So do you think I should be cleaning out the feeder and if so, how often?
Thanks