Feeding honey to the bees

[tillie]

Obviously ideally if you feed honey to the bees, it's best to do it with a frame of honey. 

A beautiful frame of honey that I had saved in my freezer for the bees went with me last weekend to the presentation I had to do.  I had a slight problem at the beginning in that the rolling cart on which all of my supplies were loaded tipped over onto a cobblestone driveway.  Everything tumbled onto the cobblestones. 

Amazingly, the jars of honey didn't break and the hive I was taking only got a dent in one hive box.

But the frame of honey broke loose from the bottom of the frame and by the end of the day, with children touching it and the trauma of being cast onto cobblestones, honey was leaking out all over the frame.  So I took it home and crushed and strained it.

But I really want to feed it to the bees.  Can I put it in a ziploc bag feeder? Or would a jar with holes like the ones I use to feed inside the hive now do?

Linda T in Atlanta

[Kirk-o]

Hi Tillie I don't think it matters which ever one works is good .Your call.
kirko

[Michael Bush]

Any method works with honey as well as syrup.  A jar.  A baggie.  Do what you normally do.

[tillie]

Terrific - I usually use a jar, but may try the ziploc bag - in the talk at Metro Atlanta Beekeepers, Jennifer Berry said that is all she ever uses. 

Linda T back in Atlanta, but wish I were in the N Ga Mountains still

[Understudy]

I put it in a jar. If it is to thick I put a little water in it.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Cindi]

Linda, awe, what a bummer eh?  YOu were so lucky that the jars didn't break, consider that a good day.  Definitely feed it back to the bees, zip loc baggies work wonders.  I am now feeding with them instead of the inner frame feeder.  I fed all my 9 colonies yesterday in less than 15 minutes (I still work slow, cause I like to have a good look at them).  Just took off the lid, replaced the empty baggies with the full baggies, made the slits and then closed them up.  No bees upset, buzzin' in my face or anything, so quick, uninvasive.

Something to be careful of when making the slits in the bags.  Some bags I must have made the slits rather large and when I took out the empty baggie, there was a bunch of bees that actually went inside the empty baggie.  So, now I make more, smaller slits.  I am not sure if they would have found their way out of the baggie.

By the way, all the colonies are still using 1/2 gallon per day, except.  My original Carniolan colony, barely even touched their food.  Hmmm...figure that one.  Have a beautiful and wonderful day in our greatest of life.  Cindi