Bucket Feed Question

[Caashenb]

I have enough colonies now that doorman feeders are becoming a pain to deal with. I made some one gallon bucket feeders and used one on a nuc a few weeks ago. The nuc I placed it on had a migratory cover and all seemed to be going well till one night we had a nine inch rain. When I made it by to check on it all bees were soaking wet and dead.

This is the first time I had used either the migratory cover or bucket feeder, it seems that water just poured in under the bucket thru the hole in the lid, I would not think this is normal but do not see a reason for it. the bucket was full so plenty of weight to keep it tight to cover. Am I missing something in placing bucket on box?

[Ben Framed]

Is your hive level? What size Nuc?

[Caashenb]

Hive was level and it is a 5 frame NUC.

[Ben Framed]

Caashenb,

Sorry you lost your hive. Tim Durham uses gallon jars with a regular size, mason jar opening for top feeding.

He told he got them from the Coca Cola Bottling Company many years ago. Back in the day these large jars were used for concentrated flavoring. Coke gave them to Tim for free.

With the right size hole for the jar top to fit into, the leakage should a minimum, if any. At least Tim never expressed experiencing problems with rain water drenching his hives. Nor have I had that experience using simple quart jars in the same method. (Which should be the equivalency in rain water leakage opportunity)

I use to call on Coka Cola and still had contacts there. I was saddened to find they no longer use the one gallon glass jars for this purpose. Bummer! 

No one gallon jars for me....

Someone here at Beemaster mentioned deli's use the same type jars for pickles. (sorry I wish I could remember who gave this good report),  Anyone here know more about this ???

Thanks,

Phillip

[Kathyp]

two things.  1. they are not dead until warm and dead/dry and dead.  2. bucket feeders are great, but you need to put an empty body and lid over them to protect from just what happened to you.

If your nuc is that strong, probably time to move it into whatever you are going to use for your hive body.  If you don't, you'll find them swarming with spring flow. 

I like the gallon jars with small holes in the lid too.  They hold up for years. The plastic buckets can degrade if left in the weather.  I have some jar feeders that I have had for probably 15 years.  Lids are a little rusty, but the bees don't care. 

[Salvo]

Hi Folks,

I've used the one-gallon pickle jars in the past, but inside a deep, with an outer cover. BUT, the deep box is 9.25 inches. The jar is ten inches tall. I used a shim. AND, I never liked the idea that a change in temperature and barometric pressure could shower my brood chamber.

I generally use frame feeders, but a *one-gallon Chicken Waterer* fits in a deep nicely. They are cheap and each lasts forever, but you must lay rocks, marbles or something in the actual trough of the waterer so that bees don't drown.

Also, with frame feeders, make a parfait spoon part of your tool kit to scoop out the few bees that get wetted when you fill them.

I recently picked up a couple of one-gallon jugs, spring loaded onto a feeder bowl, much like the chicken waterer, but made for bees. I haven't used or even cleaned them yet, but they look good.

Sal

[Terri Yaki]

I have a chicken waterer out with rocks in it for the bees to have water but they are not using it. Using it as a syrup feeder sounds like a good idea an even putting it in there as a waterer might work.

[FatherMichael]

I built a fairly substantial community feeding station of cinder blocks and a concrete foundation with a 3.5 gallons bucket feeder with 30 holes.

Have not seen a single bee at it probably because Mesquite and American Basketflower are in full bloom.

[Kathyp]

Just be kind of careful with open feeding.  Later in summer it may attract unwanted pests and robbers.  Another good reason to put your jar/bucket/etc. in an empty deep over the inner cover and cover the empty.

[Bill Murray]

I use buckets all the time. I moved to them 3 or 4 yrs ago I have not had the problem you are addressing. That being said please explain in a little more detail what you saw. Might not be the feeder per say might be the Holes/screen the lid not being sealed etc.,etc., etc.,

Sorry I misunderstood. Your saying the water is running under the bucket?

[The15thMember]

Just be kind of careful with open feeding.  Later in summer it may attract unwanted pests and robbers.  Another good reason to put your jar/bucket/etc. in an empty deep over the inner cover and cover the empty.

I agree.  It will also feed all the bees within 3 miles, making you waste syrup and potentially ruining someone else's honey crop by lacing it with sugar water. 

[Caashenb]

I use buckets all the time. I moved to them 3 or 4 yrs ago I have not had the problem you are addressing. That being said please explain in a little more detail what you saw. Might not be the feeder per say might be the Holes/screen the lid not being sealed etc.,etc., etc.,

Sorry I misunderstood. Your saying the water is running under the bucket?

It was not the feeder pail leaking it was full. It seems the water ran under the bucket and into the hole in the cover even though the cover and bucket seemed to be level and tight fitting. All bees were on bottom board soaking wet and dead when I check on them after the heavy rains I mentioned. This is the only pail feeder I had attempted to use so far a picture attached. All I can figure is the heavy rain flowed under the pail and into the hole.

[Caashenb]

Just be kind of careful with open feeding.  Later in summer it may attract unwanted pests and robbers.  Another good reason to put your jar/bucket/etc. in an empty deep over the inner cover and cover the empty.

Yeah I do not want to open feed especially at this time. I am just feeding swarm captures to get them up to speed. I have other colonies in this yard putting up honey so I want directed feeding. I have been feeding with four quart jars in a cover with a deep hive body over them but that is getting quite cumbersome and I am trying to use the hive bodies elsewhere. I acquired some frame feeders and am using those now but not in NUC's

[Kathyp]

I am just feeding swarm captures to get them up to speed.

I'd just cover the bucket with an empty and lid in the future.

Swarms come with full bellies.  I usually feed them for a few days to anchor them and until they get oriented to the hive.  If there is any kind of flow in your area that's all they need. 

If it was small enough to put in a nuc, it might need extra help, but again, you risk encouraging robbing if the swarm is small and you have full hives around it, not to mention outside robbers.  Direct feeding helps, but the syrup will still attract others.

I'd be interested to know what's going on inside a 5 frame nuc taking that much syrup. 

[Bill Murray]

I found it interesting you had a flooding problem, I havnt noticed any issue and I use them from Jan till the beginning of march usually.

[Salvo]

Hi Folks,

I finally washed those two *Bee Smart Ultimate Feeders* that I was given. Bit of a pain. They were very dirty/moldy and were problematic to reach into to scrub. Soaking a few days in bleach helped.

Here they are (not my photos). They look promising, but seem to be out of production, replaced by a newer version apparently. That *spring loading* feature intrigues me.  I'll give an update after I have to use them,... whenever.

Sal

[Terri Yaki]

Sal, that just looks like a short chicken waterer. It should work fine.

[Kathyp]

Sal, that just looks like a short chicken waterer. It should work fine.

I used to use a chicken waterer in spring.  Just put some stones in the dish part and it worked fine.  The problem was that when the syrup level got low they crawled inside and then I had a clump of dead bees.  Gorilla glue and some window screen solved that.