# Feeding a new hive & cleaning up the mess I made of it.



## LenInNorCal (Feb 28, 2009)

They probably will do all right, especially if you have a screened bottom. But if not they will simply walk on the walls to keep their feet dry. Don't know the weather where they are but if it is warm they are probably happy gathering their own nectar and pollen. It's about that time of year, mostly. If the humidity is high, like rainy a lot, then worry appropriately. They are not new to this and have worked out all the kinks in the last 65 million years, so don't worry to much. You might want to check them in a day or two. Did you do a direct release of the queen? If not then you will need to check to see if they are building the way you want them to and not all over her cage, as they are want to do. 
Enjoy. Take photos, and let us know.


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

They'll lick up what they can; the main risk will be the syrup attracting predators/pests/robbers. I wonder why he said to staple the bags? Baggie feeders are usually laid flat with a couple slits in the top surface, and the bag collapses as they drink it up. You didn't kill your colony. If the stickiness bugs you later on, you can mist it with enough water to make it liquid and they'll clean up what they didn't get this time around.


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## Abha (Apr 18, 2009)

LenInNorCal said:


> They probably will do all right, especially if you have a screened bottom. But if not they will simply walk on the walls to keep their feet dry. Don't know the weather where they are but if it is warm they are probably happy gathering their own nectar and pollen. It's about that time of year, mostly. If the humidity is high, like rainy a lot, then worry appropriately. They are not new to this and have worked out all the kinks in the last 65 million years, so don't worry to much. You might want to check them in a day or two. Did you do a direct release of the queen? If not then you will need to check to see if they are building the way you want them to and not all over her cage, as they are want to do.
> Enjoy. Take photos, and let us know.


Thanks for responding. I had trouble getting back into the forum due to my browser settings, but it is fixed now.

Both hives have a screened bottom. One hive has a 3" deep box under the board and the other doesn't. One of them is 4 feet long like this one except it has a gabled roof:










The second one was from the plans for the backyard beekeeper and mostly it looks like this:










Except I made the box on that one under the screen. I read on the Internet that due to the fact that the bees can make their own combs, mites are less of a problem than they are with traditional hives.

When I put in the sugar syrup it ran out on the ground from a crack in the bigger hive, but it probably collected in the lower box of the smaller one, and that is going to be a problem. Anyway part of all that was due to the fact that my bee class instructor didn't know what to tell me about how to deal with this hive type.

Where I live in Seattle, it is blooming, but down south where my bees are, it is still a few weeks from that. It is 100 miles south and 950ft elevation. Also there are bears there, and I didn't know that until a few weeks ago. Currently I have no fence to protect them from a bear attack....THAT is also a big worry.

I fear my bees face many challenges. I wanted to put up a bear fence, but I work full time and I didn't get to it before I got my bee packages.

Abha


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## Abha (Apr 18, 2009)

Ben Brewcat said:


> They'll lick up what they can; the main risk will be the syrup attracting predators/pests/robbers. I wonder why he said to staple the bags? Baggie feeders are usually laid flat with a couple slits in the top surface, and the bag collapses as they drink it up. You didn't kill your colony. If the stickiness bugs you later on, you can mist it with enough water to make it liquid and they'll clean up what they didn't get this time around.


I don't know...that is a big part of all the problem is that _I don't know._ I had better learn fast though.

Abha


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## oldenglish (Oct 22, 2008)

I had some similar issues with mine, however I found that nothing I could do would entice them to feed, even though my Langs are sucking it down like it was free beer.
Inspection on saturday showed that even though they are not touching the feed they are building comb and storing stuff away. I had one frame of comb collapse when I tried to straighten it out so called it quits for the day, I will go back in later in the week after I have read up on them a little more.

You are more than welcome to come up and see how my tbh is doing, it may help you in managing yours ?


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

The plastic bag feeding is not a good way to go. Get a one quart bottle...pickle jar will work fine with a metal lid. Punch about five holes in it with just the tip of a nail. Fill with 1:1. Get a piece of plywood at least 4 ins wide and the length of the width of your TBH at the level where the jar just fits under the top cover. As you are Just starting out place you have room outside of where you have your top bars placed. Place the jar with the holes over the hole with the board. They will feed great and the jar will provide a good suction so you don't get the spill mess like with bags.


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## Abha (Apr 18, 2009)

alpha6 said:


> The plastic bag feeding is not a good way to go. Get a one quart bottle...pickle jar will work fine with a metal lid. Punch about five holes in it with just the tip of a nail. Fill with 1:1. Get a piece of plywood at least 4 ins wide and the length of the width of your TBH at the level where the jar just fits under the top cover. As you are Just starting out place you have room outside of where you have your top bars placed. Place the jar with the holes over the hole with the board. They will feed great and the jar will provide a good suction so you don't get the spill mess like with bags.



I found that out in spades. Thanks for the info, but I am not quite understanding how the jar feeding would work. It was awful how fast the sugar syrup came out of the bags. I did put a pound of brood builder packets inside each hive besides trying to give them the syrup.

Abha


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

It came out quickly because there is no vacuum. When you use a bottle and cap, the vacuum will hold the liquid in but it will form drops where the holes in the cap are. As the bees lick up the drops more form and they drain the whole bottle this way...and can do so more quickly then you think.

To build up and build comb they need either nectar or syrup so if you don't have a flow on you need to feed syrup so they can build out their comb.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

I'm feeding my first two new tbh's that I put package bees into, I have a boardman feeder on the inside of the hive. What I did was cut a slot at the bottom of my divider board ( I only gave the bees 8 bars to occupy for now out of total of 30 in the hive) for the feeder to insert into. I have an observation window built into my hives so I am able to monitor the amount of feed in the jar without really disturbing the bees. What I noticed is that the bees were not able to get to the feeder because the weather turned much cooler after I installed the packages, like around 50 degrees during the day and 40's at night. The bees were clustered at the top of the hive hanging from the top bars and side walls. Virtually no bees were observed going to and from the feeder. I was worried that they could starve if the weather stays this cool, so today I put a baggie feeder in. What I did was fill the baggie half full with syrup, and punched three tiny, and I mean tiny holes with the tip of a small pin so that when I held the baggie vertical the syrup would drip out of the three holes at a rate of about one drip every 20 seconds. Then I layed the baggie down flat on the top bars over the area where the cluster was, spread two adjoining top bars apart about 1/8", and slipped about 2" of the bottom of the baggie into the crevice so it could reach the cluster. Then I thumb-tacked the top most edge of the baggie, the area above the seal with three tacks to keep the baggie from slipping down into the cluster, and put the roof back on. I have a gable roof on my tbh's, so there is plenty of room in the attic for the baggie to lay. I'm going to take the top off late today to see how much syrup they have taken. I'll feel better when I know they are eating again, will let you know later today how the baggie is working out.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

O.k., I just went out this evening to check the baggie feeders in the two tbh's that I told you about earlier today. If the bees took any of the syrup, I sure couldn't tell, seemed like it was about the same amount in the baggie that I put in. Looking into the observation window tonight though, I noticed that both hives are building comb, something I didn't see this morning. This is kind of puzzling to me, maybe someone can enlighten me about this, the package bees were installed this last Saturday evening, they ate about half the syrup in the can that came with the packages during their trip up north from Georgia. I did spray the cages with syrup every couple hours from the time I got the packages Friday evening. I soaked them down real good again when I installed them. As of tonight, they have not taken any syrup from the Boardman feeders located inside the hives on the other side of the divider boards. And best I can tell as I said before, they didn't consume any syrup from the baggies I put on the top bars this morning. It's just been too cool for them to venture to the Boardman feeder down on the bottom board. My question is, will newly installed bees build comb even when they can't get to food real well because of the weather. Seems to me they would conserve the food in their bellies and not build comb until food was more readily available, or am I wrong?


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