feeding honey question

uglyfrozenfish · October 30, 2011, 03:05:01 PM

I have a top hive feeder. I put honey in it a week ago. I checked today and it appears they are not taking any of it down yet. Today cloudy and breezy I see bees taking pollen off of my bok choi plants which are still flowering. They are also taking honey from the empty honey buckets that I have there for open feeding (and to clean the buckets). The hive top feeder is on top of my inner cover and I'm wondering if they aren't interested, when I should pull it, or if my setup is wrong.
Thanks
Lee

yockey5 · October 30, 2011, 03:27:18 PM

When they want it, they will get it.

AliciaH · October 30, 2011, 03:52:10 PM

If it's too cold to have the top feeder on without the inner cover, I would pull the top feeder and feed the honey back a different way. Maybe even by putting it in a frame feeder or just open feeding the batch.

If it's not too cold, then how about pulling the inner cover and seeing if it helps. Maybe a little more heat from the hive to get the smell of the honey moving around would encourage them to take it.

rdy-b · October 30, 2011, 08:24:16 PM

mix a little water in it to thin it and they will take it over straight honey
i dont think i ever used a hive top feeder with a inercover--can the bees get to the
feed --RDY-B

T Beek · October 31, 2011, 08:52:22 AM

Agreed; The instructions for my hive top feeders say to remove the inner cover when using. That said, it may be too cold right now. If you have any empty comb frames you could warm up the honey and pour some into empty cells, placing them inside provided there's room, but you'll need a sunny day in the fifties and that may not happen again till March or April, but if you have boc choy still flowering (gotta love the BIG lake effect) you 'should' be alright. Go for it.

thomas

Michael Bush · October 31, 2011, 03:57:22 PM

Cold is usually what stops them from taking feed. Warming it will usually get them to take it. The problem with thinning honey is it won't keep long once it's been thinned.

uglyfrozenfish · November 02, 2011, 10:11:53 AM

Hey thanks for the comments, T Beek and rdy-b Thanks for the info about the inner cover. I have the plastic hive top feeders but they didn't come with any instructions so i had to guess.
I like the suggestion about thinning the honey and I may do that in the spring, but for now anything they don't take now I want to be able to give back to them in the spring so I don't want to dilute it just yet.
THanks again,
Lee