Frame Feeder

[Biermann]

Hello,

Last year, new to the bee side of live, I left the plastic frame feeder in all year and have not removed it, yet, this year either (luckily since i am feeding again with a long spell of cold, wet weather in s. Alberta), but when we have June coming and the question if it would be better to remove the frame feeder and insert a drawn frame to have more room for brood and feed.

It could be removed in the fall, again.

Thanks for your advise, Joerg

[Countryboy]

How do you configure your hive? Do you run a single deep brood box with a queen excluder? If the queen is limited to one deep box, you may wish to remove the feeder to give the queen more room to lay.

If you allow the queen to lay in 2 deep boxes, leave the feeder in. The queen has enough room to lay eggs and it is more convenient to have a frame feeder in every brood box.

I leave frame feeders in my hives year round.

[Charlie]

Generally speaking I run doubles and I leave the frame feeders in all year except for the following three reasons :
1-They need cleaning
2- I am putting on supers for a honey flow and do not wish to take the chance of getting syrup mixed with my honey frames. I realize there is a chance that the bees move syrup around and it could end up in my honey frames but I believe the risk is small when there is a flow on .
3- I need to add a couple of empty frames to give the Queen room to lay . Generally if this is a problem I will be removing more than just the frame feeders to give her room to lay.

[Allen Dick]

I used to have a frame feeder in each brood box year round. That way the newer staff always knew brood boxes from supers.

Another hint was that I did not drill supers. Top ventilation and entrances in my area are a nuisance most of the year.

I often filled both feeders on doubles several times during spring feeding and they were emptied.

The only drawback is that of you are slow putting on supers the bees plug the feeders with comb and honey. Also the queen may hide in there on occasion.

I recommend pulling them and a frame of plastic foundation on its place. Then the frame has hive scent and is handy when you need it.

I should mention that I have had to feed in July back in the bad old days in the the seventies. Hope you never see a year like some of those.