I've been feeding the big swarm I caught and placed in a TBH ever since I caught them several weeks ago. They've been going through feed like it was beer at a frat party. All of a sudden, I get a massive pile of drowned bees in the feeder. See the last 2 entries in my blog for a pic (Jun 29 & 30).
What kind of feeder are you using
anytime you use something deep or something they can get into, they will pile up and drown those on the bottom. the screen came off my poultry feeder once and the next day the jar was 1/2 full of dead bees. looks like you had a pile on in your feed dish.
use something shallow. put rocks or something in so that bees can crawl out. make sure it's big enough. that dish doesn't look like it is. you might try the poultry feeders. you can put a lot in them and then not worry about them. don't know if they'd fit in a TBH, but you can look at them in feed stores.
I use fresh pine straw in a feeder, long as I dont get skimpy on how much straw I never have drowned bees.
They do that sometimes. I kinda think they get pushed in. They live a while tho, I rescue em and stick em on a bush to dry out.
Quote from: NewBeeMike on June 30, 2009, 10:09:10 AM
I've been feeding the big swarm I caught and placed in a TBH ever since I caught them several weeks ago. They've been going through feed like it was beer at a frat party. All of a sudden, I get a massive pile of drowned bees in the feeder. See the last 2 entries in my blog for a pic (Jun 29 & 30).
Yep, straw will help.........alot.