(I hope that this letter, about feeding syrup to bees, and about DIY projects, is appropriate for this discussion thread. I am using Langstroth style hives).
This year many beekeepers in Australia have found the season has been worse than last year, when the bees did well in their honey-making exploits. Some beekeepers here have started to feed their bees to help prepare them for our coming winter.
I have been a DIY kind of person for many years, and have contemplated what kind of feeding method might be most effective. The type of feeder which has appealed most to me is a hive-top syrup feeder, which sits on the crown board, and is covered by an additional hive box.
For those who may need to work within a tight budget, or who enjoy “Doing It Yourself”, I would like to share information about a feeder I have made from items which I had in the home, or which were left over from some other projects. I am happy to report that it is working very well, as the bees have accepted it eagerly.
Actually, I have made some clear crown boards (with Perspex inserts, rather than plywood), and have been able to watch the bees in the hive when they were not exposed directly to the outside atmosphere. I have found it absolutely fascinating to see bees methodically working their way along the top surface of a honey frame, wiping their front legs across the surface of the wooden bars, presumably to keep it up to their standards of cleanliness. Their movement was very much like that of a person who was on their hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor!
It feels like a real bonus to me that I can remove the outer cover of the hive to access the syrup feeder, and I can observe the bees feeding through the clear inner cover, or replenish the syrup, with the bees remaining completely enclosed in the hive
The items I have used were:
(1) A small plastic bucket with a close fitting lid, which can be completely contained within a hive body which sits over the crown board. The bucket which I have used was a two-litre container for Greek-style yoghurt. The lid of this container can be firmly closed to make it ant-proof, if ants should happen to enter the top of the hive.
(2) A short length of PVC-U pipe, with a length about the same as the height of the bucket. This type of hard PVC plastic is rated as being suitable for contact with food. The pipe which I have used is 40mm outside diameter, but is dependent on what is available in your location.
(3) A clear glass jar which is nearly as tall as the bucket, and which will sit upside-down in the completed syrup feeder. The mouth of this jar must be a little larger than the diameter of the PVC pipe. The inside diameter of the jar must also be large enough to allow space for the bees to climb between the jar and the pipe.
(3) A small quantity of fiberglass insect screen mesh, which is used to create “bee-ladders”, to enable the bees to climb down to the syrup, and to grab hold of if they fall into the syrup.
(4) Some thin nylon fishing line which can be used as “sewing thread” in the construction of the bee-ladders.
The tools needed were:
- A saw for cutting the PVC pipe to the required length.
- A hole-saw for use in an electric drill, to cut a hole slightly smaller than the diameter of the PVC pipe which you use.
- A hot-air blower, to soften the plastic base of the bucket, to stretch the hole a little, so that the PVC pipe can be pushed through the hole.
- A sewing needle which can be used with the thin nylon fishing line.
I found that if the diameter of the hole in the bottom of the bucket is about 1 or2 mm smaller than the outside diameter of the pipe, then it was not difficult to stretch the hole after the bucket bottom had been softened with the hot air blower. If the hole is too small, the plastic may split from being stretched too much. If the hole is too large, then the pipe may not provide a leak-proof seal where it passes through the bottom of the bucket. Using this method, my bucket feeder does not leak at all.
It is very helpful to chamfer the edge of the end of the pipe, to enable the pipe to be pushed more easily through the hole in the bottom of the bucket. The pipe should extend through the bottom of the bucket, and also through the hole in the crown board, so that the bottom of the pipe is within a “bee space” of the top of the honey frames. I have made the hole in the crown board just slightly larger (about 1 to 2 mm) than the diameter of the PVC pipe.
When the glass jar is inverted over the PVC pipe, there needs to be sufficient clearance between the top of the pipe and the bottom of the jar, so that bees are able easily to negotiate their way up through the inside of the pipe from the hive, and down the outside of the pipe to the syrup.
I have made two sleeves from the fiberglass screen mesh – one which tightly surrounds the outside of the PVC pipe, and the other which fits snugly against the wall of the inside of the jar. These sleeves provide a surface which the bees are able to climb easily. The nylon fishing line is used to stitch the ends of the pieces of mesh to make the cylindrical shapes of these two bee-ladders.
