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Subject:
From:
Gerry Visel <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 14 Jan 1997 00:39:10 EST
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   I also had problems with slow drinkers at the boardman feeders.  When
I put them on the front of the hive, the diurnal heating/cooling pumped
them empty before the bees could drink.  The leakage drew yellow jackets,
which spread into the hives.  Even placed on inner covers, they only drew
a few bees, and some even got mold on the syrup, it took them so long to
take down.
 
   Last fall, (from a discussion here,) I used feeder bags on my five
hives.  I placed them on the inner cover, with an empty super around
them.  (Putting them on a queen excluder would ease up/down travel some.)
 I used one-gallon zip-lock freezer bags, filled 3/4 full.  When they are
3/4 full, the top surface lays flat, (not humped upward,) and will not
leak syrup when slit with a razor.  (Overfilling causes leakage!)  I made
three or so 4-inch long slits across the top surface.  Coming back an
hour later found the beeses lined up like pigs at the trough on both
sides of each slit.
 
   Coming back the next morning found the bags empty, or very nearly so.
I have never had bees take down the juice so fast.  A second application
with new bags went just as fast.  There were a few bees trapped inside
the bags.
 
   The speed they take it down makes the problem of spillage during
movement less significant, if not moot, as they are only on the hive a
day or so.  I guess you could move them in place on the inner cover if
you had to.
 
   My only problems were that the bags can't be recycled, (help save the
plastic trees!) and that I can't figger out how to use the same idea on
our observation hive.  (One quart there lasts for weeks, even when they
are hungry.  Anybody got any ideas?)
 
   Maybe it's not the way to go if you are trying to slowly medicate your
bees with something, but if you want them to take down syrup quickly,
it's the greatest thing since pancakes!
 
Gerry and the other Visels at
[log in to unmask]
Winnebago, Illinois, USA

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