(This is a continuation of my recent article on drum feeding.  I
started to write this to a friend and then decided to share it).
 
I think feeding can significantly increase a beekeeper's income by
displacing honey with feed sugar -- and increasing populations (if
you have use for them and they don't eat you out of house and home).
If the broods are full, then honey goes upstairs.  Even poor honey
is worth much more than syrup.  You need good syrup handling
equipment though, and syrup is heavy to haul.  On the downside,
you'll have to haul a lot of honey home at extracting time, and the
hives may not be so easy to carry to pollination.
 
My personal belief, after feeding everything imaginable to my bees
over the years, is that it is wise to serve them only the very best
human grade sugar or syrup and not to use off spec bargains.  I
realise some use brown sugar and get away with it, but I wouldn't
personally consider it a good investment.
 
Honey is the bees' fuel, just as pollen is their bread.  The purity
of the fuel for bees -- just like cars or furnaces -- is very
important. I reason that *any* stress that is not necessary should be
avoided, since we don't ever know which will be the figurative
'straw' that breaks the camel's back, when mites, sprays, moving,
splitting, and many other stresses gang up on the bees.
 
A truckload of HFCS or sucrose fills about 80-100 drums.  If you
don't have tanks, you can fill drums in your warehouse and roll them
onto your trailer or truck with a handcart.  You can then then bail
them into the yard feeder drums with a bucket -- if you use open top
drums.  Closed top drums require a pump or tipping to pour, a tricky
proposition. It will be difficult to fill them, too. They are
useless for open feeding unless you cut the lid off.
 
If you can't use, or can't afford a whole load, you can sell surplus
drums of syrup to other beekeepers or share a load. On occasion, I
have been able to convince a dealer to send a half load by paying an
extra $150 or so to cover the empty half of the truck. That is
cheaper than doing without syrup because the price is too high, or
holding syrup you don't need, and which can ferment over several
months in warm weather. Even at 67%, syrup can turn slowly --
especially if the water and drums or tanks are not sterile or sealed.
 
Syrup *is* sterile when delivered and if filled into clean vessels
*should* not turn, but do monitor syrup if you have too much and wind
up storing some.
 
If you get HFCS, it comes at 77%, and you are wise to have enough
water already in each tank or drum to dilute to 67% (the ideal
feeding strength).  This prevents granulation, too.  If you specify
when you order, the truck can come with a pump and up to 50 feet of
3" hose that will reach right into your warehouse and fill your
tanks or open top drums which shuold have water already in them. You
can also fill them outside, but be sure to seal them against bees
immediately.
 
The turbulence of filling should mix the HFCS and water pretty well,
but after standing a while the syrup at the bottom of the tank will
be a little thicker than the top.  This is only a problem if you are
trying to pump at freezing temperatures and have a marginal motor on
the pump.
 
A word here on sanitation and materials:
 
Although bees can handle a lot of filth (most of the time), it is not
smart to give them more dirt and dead bees, etc. in their feed than
necessary or to use questionable materials for holding and dispensing
feed. People can eat unbelievable things too, often without ill
effect, (Seems I heard about some fellow in Europe eating an entire
bus, bit by bit) but we generally strive for cleanliness to be safe.
 
Many beekeepers, myself included, use gas tanks, rubber hoses, etc.
that are not intended for food use for feeding our bees.  The logic is
that the feed is for the bees, and not people.  However, bees can be
poisoned too, and besides, there is the remote chance that some of the
feed can wind up in human food, so I generally try not to use anything
I would not put into my own mouth, and look for materials that are the
least potentially harmful.
 
Pumps:
 
It is much easier to pump the syrup than to use other methods of
moving it.
 
We feed in hive using frame feeders which stay in *every* brood
chamber year round.  That means our hives have two feeders -- one
top and one bottom, and we can choose just to fill the top, or to
twist the top box and fill the lower too. We also feed outside the
hive, using open drums as described fairly well in a previous
article. Each method is useful in different circumstances.
 
For feeding in drums, we receive the syrup in three or four 1250 US
gallon tanks of the farm water tank variety.  Each has a 2" outlet
on the bottom, which is fitted inside with a siphon made of a
plastic pipe el, to ensure draining the tank.  A manhole on top
allows for cleaning etc.  There are vents in the lid to prevent
collapsing the tank when pumping from the bottom (It has been done!).
These vents must be screened or bees and wasps will soon fill the
tank.  A 1-1/2" square of common window screen pushed in with a
pencil works well.
 
As mentioned, we have water from a city supply (sterile) already
waiting in the tank to dilute the syrup if we are getting HFCS.  HFCS
arrives at about 95 degrees F. and mixes well when warm.
 
Attached to the bottom outlet, we have a ball valve and a Camloc (r)
connector. Using several feet of plastic suction hose (as short as
practicable), a general purpose pump with a 3-1/2 HP B&S motor can
be connected quickly.  In cool weather when syrup is thicker, we use
a belt driven 1-1/4" Jabsco honey pump with a 2 HP electric motor
(this motor could as easily be 1 HP). I have seen the 5 HP Honda
powered pump do a nice job at a neighbours' place in cool conditions.
 
Twenty feet of 2" suction type hose attaches to the outlet side of the
pump and can fill a 500 gallon tank that we use on the one ton truck,
a 1250 gallon tank on a 3 Ton Truck, or our frame feeder filling
system.
 
Our frame feeder filling system is a 250 gallon gas tank with a
Jabsco honey pump attached.  The pump is driven by a 12 volt motor,
and the whole thing is controlled by a normal Pumptrol (r) set at
about 20/30 pounds pressure.  Since a rubber 35 foot gasoline hose
is used on the pump outlet, there is a bit of elasticity there and
the pump therefore does not cycle out of control.
 
On the end of the hose is the kind of gasoline nozzle that you use
every time you fuel up at a gas station. It has swivels, and nice
balance.  My fuel agent gives me the ones that wear out in retail
service.  I cut the plastic cover off, take out the auto-shutoff
mechanism, and they work well for us.  All syrup must be kept clean
or it will plug the nozzle valve.  Don't let bees get into the tank,
and if you are tempted to feed honey make sure there is no wax in it.
 
Trucks and Trailers:
 
If your own truck is not up to the job, truck rental -- for a week or
so -- might pay hansomely.  Using too small a vehicle can be very
dangerous and costly.
 
Remember that syrup will slosh around in a half-empty tank, and, if
the truck is not heavy enough for the job, the surging may throw you
right off the road -- or, worse still -- into the path of an
oncoming vehicle, so test your vehicle and loading carefully before
starting off on a trip. Trailers in particular can be very tricky.
We had one flip a truck this spring, and it only had a small (250
gallon) tank on it -- and it was a 10,000 pound rated trailer.
 
Also remember that when you go on a side hill or up or down steep
hills that your load will shift drastically and can tip you over or
break springs!  Never exceed the rating printed on your tires, and
make sure your tires are fully inflated.  Syrup is heavy.  One drum
weighs about 600 pounds.  It is well worth going over a scale and
making sure that one axle is not overloaded, while the other is
light the first few time you haul syrup.
 
That's about all I can think of right now.  Sorry if it is a little
disjointed.  We're packing to go to the mountains to take our crew
skiing for a treat, so I have to go without too much more
re-writing.  I am sure there will be questions, so direct them to
me.
 
With the Chinook we are experiencing, snow is melting fast, and we
are about to put all the above to work soon.  We went to look
at a few yards yesterday.  Wintering results are mixed so far (with a
small sample). A report will follow later.
 
Later...
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
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Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>