Lloyd Spear wrote:

> Not much can beat a glass gallon jar upside down with holes in the lid. H=
> owever, if one is going to put this directly on the top bars or over the =
> inner cover hole, a surrounding deep is required to prevent wind, raccoon=
> s, etc. from tipping it over. A further disadvantage is that a single gal=
> lon of syrup is not much good for anything. Two to four gallons is really=
>  necessary for either feeding or drawing foundation. That means at least =
> two trips to refill.

 I much prefer new gallon paint cans. They don't break if you drop them, and
they aren't "tippy" when on the hive. If you buy "coated" cans, they will never
rust on the inside. You can feed up to 5 gallons at a time. Great for fall
feeding. I place them on thin shims to keep the lid a bee space off the top
bars. Since I don't want to cut my inner covers full of holes, I do use an empty
hive body to surround the cans. In cold weather,with the cans on the frames, the
bees cluster around the cans, warming the syrup. The bees will take down 5
gallons in two or three days. I feed HFCS. If the feeders are above the inner
cover, exposed to the elements, the syrup will often crystalize before the bees
can take it down. I tried jars at one time, early on in my beekeeping. I had
trouble finding enough jars, and I found them way too hard to handle.
    I agree that hive top feeders work well, but they are too expensive for me.
I have found that they don't work well in cold weather. A real drawback if you
are trying to get your colonies fed for winter, and the cold weather comes on
early.

                                                                        Mike