Bee Space - It's Spring!

Time to feed the bees so that they build up in time for splits and the nectar flow.
I have 12 hives so I am trying open feeding this year. I made a float from EPS board (DTFB). The first version had 3/8" holes since that is bee space. Bees like 3/8" they will not try to make it smaller (in a hive ) by adding comb and they will not try to seal it off with propolis.


The paper is easily removed by running under hot water and it floats nicely on the top of the sugar solution. However, these 3/8" holes were too big and too may bees got covered in sugar or drowned. I then made one with 3/16" holes which the bees will not fit through and they can still reach the sugar.

However, one smaller native bee tried to get through the smaller hole to access the sugar and got stuck.

There were a few honey bees that got too cold when the sun started going down and the bucket was shadowed, but they revived when I put them in the sun.

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What a cool application!

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I’m very impressed!

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We need bees to survive, thanks for helping them.

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Very interesting project! At first I thought you were making sieve plates (hmmmm, that gives me an idea…). I’m wondering if the bees mind the burnt smell coming off the material, or did you wash it off really well?

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Good question about the smell.

The lingering aroma was surprisingly vile.

Removing the paper via running hot water removes any

remaining smell on the EPS.

Jeffrey Forbes

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreygforbes

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Now I will have to make one of these for my cousin Nolan who just relocated a bee hive from my the walls of my house. We did read about giving the bees sugar water the first year. Thanks for the idea.

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Very cool and interesting project!

If you just have a few hives using an in hive feeder may be more efficient.

Jeffrey Forbes

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreygforbes

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I made some queen excluders for a beekeeper friend. He was pretty happy with how they came out. :slight_smile:

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Nice! I need to make some of those. I purchased some but they were too small.
I am in the middle of processing 64 BF of white pine boards into nucleus hive boxes.

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