Stampede in feeder drowning bees is this normal?

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi what's happened there is the bees are very short or completely out of food
The desperation to get into the feed cone means bees already in there can't get out or stop themselves being pushed to the bottom of the cone
If bees are close to starvation you can get this with rapid feeders I have done it myself the bees in the hive below can't get in and starve anyway
So if there are no stores in a hive the best plan is to trickle a little syrup over the bees and use a contact feeder
Hope that helps 8ace

 

[8ace]

Hi what's happened there is the bees are very short or completely out of food
The desperation to get into the feed cone means bees already in there can't get out or stop themselves being pushed to the bottom of the cone
If bees are close to starvation you can get this with rapid feeders I have done it myself the bees in the hive below can't get in and starve anyway
So if there are no stores in a hive the best plan is to trickle a little syrup over the bees and use a contact feeder
Hope that helps 8ace

They have about 25lb of honey before I addeed feeder I can see how in that situation it would be a problem

 

[The Drone Ranger]

I am glad that I am wrong 8 ace
Hope they do well over Winter

 

[8ace]

The Second Hive Did a similar thing even when added small amounts they stood in it and pretty much part submerged themselves and quite a few drowned. I got a Simon bee keeper small round on which has a much smaller space so they can't climb on top of one another and is working fine no probs as yet so I am abolishing the large white Thornes 6 litre one as it is a pile of cr@p so have order a second round one. It may needed topping up more often but saves winter bees getting killed.

 

[deanrpwaacs]

I use a piece of fern either side so they can at least climb out .

 

[Delgirl]

The Second Hive Did a similar thing even when added small amounts they stood in it and pretty much part submerged themselves and quite a few drowned. I got a Simon bee keeper small round on which has a much smaller space so they can't climb on top of one another and is working fine no probs as yet so I am abolishing the large white Thornes 6 litre one as it is a pile of cr@p so have order a second round one. It may needed topping up more often but saves winter bees getting killed.

I used the small one this summer the same as your Simon one but I still had to run some sandpaper inside the cup as I noticed occasional bee slipping in that chose not to use the ridged core. Seems to work fine now. I do have a larger one not used yet but notice this has ridges inside the cup already which assume would help.

 

[8ace]

I used the small one this summer the same as your Simon one but I still had to run some sandpaper inside the cup as I noticed occasional bee slipping in that chose not to use the ridged core. Seems to work fine now. I do have a larger one not used yet but notice this has ridges inside the cup already which assume would help.

The larger thornes one I have has got quite deep ridges but the gap between the inner ramp and the outer cup is quite large at the top about 15 mm or more narrowing down a little towards the bottom allowing the bees to clamber over one another and get framed in.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

The Second Hive Did a similar thing even when added small amounts they stood in it and pretty much part submerged themselves and quite a few drowned. I got a Simon bee keeper small round on which has a much smaller space so they can't climb on top of one another and is working fine no probs as yet so I am abolishing the large white Thornes 6 litre one as it is a pile of cr@p so have order a second round one. It may needed topping up more often but saves winter bees getting killed.

I was at the association breeding apiary on Saturday and we found SOME of the Thornes white feeders had a lot of semi submerged drowned bees clogging access to the syrup. One of our group commented she saw bees slipping down the plastic cone. Perhaps sandpapering the cone before putting into service might help?
Not sure why only some of the feeders gave the problem unless it's a manufacturing variation.

 

[testka]

I've found the ones I ordered from thornes this year much worse. In comparison to the ones from previous years a lot more drowned bees. I assume a manufacturing change.

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[fred scuttle]

I fit all my bees with crampons at syrup feeding time..... Usually does the trick