I made a nice little feeder. I had a topic about it earlier but I thought I'd post a picture or two. It encloses a jar and you put light bulbs in it to keep the jar warm. It has worked wonders. It has allowed my bees to take down syrup 24/7 even when it's to cold. Otherwise the syrup would cool and I'd have to be out there daily to change the jar.
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af52/dpboll/f3c329c128f57dc1592548438ae63351_zpsf9cd9bca.jpg (http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af52/dpboll/f3c329c128f57dc1592548438ae63351_zpsf9cd9bca.jpg)
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af52/dpboll/1ea1cc03b42acbab828205d7dae1b98f_zps60de1814.jpg (http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af52/dpboll/1ea1cc03b42acbab828205d7dae1b98f_zps60de1814.jpg)
I just put this right over the bees with a deep over it. You could also put over the inner cover.
Looks like a good use for those old obsolete Edison light bulbs :)
I hope you are using low wattage bulbs. I would be concerned about it catching fire.
Jim
Each bulb is 15 watts.
A person could do the same thing with a low wattage incubator heater with or without a fan.
Set the thermostat to keep the temperature above freezing or 101 degrees where ever you want the temperature.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on April 08, 2014, 12:56:13 PM
I hope you are using low wattage bulbs. I would be concerned about it catching fire.
I just hope the government doesn't get involved in setting building codes for bee hives, or I'll be in trouble. :-D
Another option might be solar heated syrup. Maybe cover the top of the feeder box with polycarbonate; turning it into a mini greenhouse. That would probably warm the syrup up nicely on a sunny day. Sun provides something like 100 watts of energy per sq foot, that's more energy than the light bulbs.