> Many thoughts around on open feeding.

I had been looking through books and the Web for "feeding stations" and
"feeders", thus my perceived lack of information on open feeding.  I
just hadn't stumbled across the correct term:  "open feeding".  There is
a terrific amount of information available on the topic.  One just needs
to know what to look for!

> Robbing is a syndrome that requires a break point as intervention.

What is meant by a break point?

> The only other suggestion is something you specifically mentioned was not 
> a preferred option and that is a move.  Perhaps you could do a bit of 
> moving about within your apiary.  This could be swapping strong with weak 
> or outright moving the strong ones to a new spot (they will find a home if 
> hives are in the near proximity).

By this you mean swapping the location of a weak have and a strong hive
while the foragers are out?  The idea being the weak hive will accept
the foragers returning from the field?  I've done this during a strong
flow to balance out populations between new hives.  During a dearth,
wouldn't the bees be too defensive for this to work well?  Also, simply
moving strong hives will lessen robbing?  Is this also due to the
redistribution of field bees into other weaker colonies?

> have you tried robbing screens?

These look quite useful.  I'll have to make some up and give them a try.

Certainly, I prefer to feed each hive individually.  Mostly, I've been
using inverted quart jars covered by a hive body.  For some reason, even
though they were hidden, it still lead to severe robbing.

Open feeding has really resolved the situation.  Over the past couple
days I've worked with a few different techniques.  This morning I used
something closer to a 2:1 sugar:water solution.  Apparently, it's more
difficult for bees to actually get wet and drown with the thicker syrup.
I'll know more tomorrow if this is in fact the case.  It appears to be
so far.

Instead of the wooden floats I used for a couple days, I tried straw.  I
set three fluffy inches atop the sugar solution.  Likewise, the straw
should stay fairly dry with the higher sugar content.  Again, I'll know
more tomorrow how this works out.

I've already encountered one problem with the use of straw.  It's very
difficult for the bees to locate the sugar solution.  The addition of a
very small amount of Honey B Healthy (2 tsp in several gallons of sugar
solution) helped significantly.

The bees are currently feeding *very* well.  The apiary feels and shows
the signs of a strong nectar flow.  There is a steady river of bees
flowing from our North pasture, over our garage, into our front yard
where the apiary is.  Quite a sight.  I've been feeding some hives with
quart jars as well.  Hopefully I can go from open feeding back to
feeding individual hives without robbing becoming an issue again.  As
usual, I'll be reducing entrances and covering the jars with hive
bodies.

-Jeff
Western Washington State

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