# Top feeder vs. entrance feeder?



## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

I have both but I keep using the entrance feeder because it's easier and it's so cold here I hate to open the hive cover to refill. What's best for winter?


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## stoffel64 (Sep 23, 2010)

I just live south of you in Pacifica, with a very similar climate. I use top feeder by inverting 2 to 4 jars over the inner cover. I have build a little thing which holds these 2 or 4 jars over the inner cover hole. 
I have an additional box around the feeder, so that they don't fall over. With this feeder system I don't need to open the hive. I just replace the empty jar and this is done in a second.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

stoffel64,

Would you please send me a pic?

Thanks!!


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## Dubuquer (Jun 1, 2009)

I have a top feeder in GA and use it in the spring. During the winter I invert a plastic ice cream bucket with 1/16" holes in the lid. The year I used my HTF during the winter the bees starved to death as they would not break cluster to go to sides of feeder to get syrup.


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## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

We do not feed in the winter. Too cold for them to take the feed. We try to feed and get the feed stored before winter. Side feeder or top feeder will not help once winter sets in.


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## stoffel64 (Sep 23, 2010)

Hi,

Here are a few pictures of my simple top feeder system.

I made it out of scrap wood pieces.


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## PCM (Sep 18, 2007)

stoffel64 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Here are a few pictures of my simple top feeder system.


Similar to mine except my holes are covered with # 8 hardware cloth, the lids set on the cloth, bees eat thru cloth, I refill with no bees flying around.

PCM


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## Gardenside Beehives (Jun 8, 2011)

I have always read the entrance feeders promote robbing. The only thing I use entrance feeders for is providing the hives with water.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

Wow, thanks for all the responses. Great idea about just using the entrance feeder for water and thanks for the pics Stoffel64. I'm going to make some of those feeders.


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## stoffel64 (Sep 23, 2010)

This is a good idea with the #8 hardware cloth. With the hardware cloth I can use different size jars
because they don't need to fit perfectly anymore. 
I will adjust my feeders.

Thanks
Stefan


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## Bee Goddess (May 11, 2011)

I prefer front feeders. Easier to check feed level and monitor.
I have had top bucket feeders and they drowned my bees. 
I have used inside feeders and in cold weather they turn to sugar.
In the late winter and close to Spring I place a front feeder inside and on top of the inner cover, place a hive body around it and replace the lid.

I read where you can take a frame of empty comb from a hive, dip it into your liquid feed and place it back in the hive for them to feed off of also.


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## valleyman (Nov 24, 2009)

For those of you that are using the front entrance feeder, throw them away. You will eventually pay the price. They are the single most worst cause of robbing. The robbers won't stop with just the jar, they will rob out a hive in 1-2 days. Don't take my word for it do a search on the home page for front entrance feeders. 
The type of jar feeders that you are making are available from Walter T. Kelley Co. They come in 2 or 4 quart feeders w/ # hardware cloth. They also carry the quart plastic jars with the punched caps for these feeders. I cut out the plastic inner cover so that the 4 quart one will sit directly on the top of the frames. therby giving them more area to feed from. I also made a super/riser out of 6" pine boards and added the vented super from Kelleys. thereby having room for the quart jars on top. I also use SBB and the vented super year around. Cold doesn't kill bees, moisture does. SO DOES ROBBING!!


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## Dana (Mar 26, 2005)

I use a front feeder with the rest of the bottom entrance closed. The bees use the top entrance.


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## valleyman (Nov 24, 2009)

They can still smell the feed and are likely to figure out how to get to it therby still robbing out the hive. Once one finds the way the whole robbing hive will know. While this is better, the safer way is to enclose the feed on top of the hive being fed.


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## Dana (Mar 26, 2005)

I don't think it's any different than putting the feed in the top and using a bottom entrance as far as robbers "smelling" the feed. I've got 4 strong hives and have been feeding a small swarm right next to them for almost 4 weeks. No robbing has occurred. Any robbers would have to go in the top entrance, through the hive to the bottom to get to the feed. I don't think it matters as long as the feed is at the opposite end from the entrance.


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## valleyman (Nov 24, 2009)

Are you having any kind of a flow. the robbing is usually during a dearth. To each his own, but to most beeks the entrance feeder is as bad as duragilt foundation.


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## sammyjay (May 2, 2011)

I used entrance feeders and it caused robbing almost immediately.


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## Dana (Mar 26, 2005)

We're getting some nectar flow except right after a rain and too long after a rain. So hit or miss. i think the reason I'm not seeing robbing is because the bottom entrance is CLOSED. Have you ever tried it that way? The top entrance is small enough for them to guard. 

I would NEVER use an "entrance" feeder either. I'm just trying to explain how I get to easily change the feed and see how low it's getting by removing the "entrance" factor. What I'm doing is not an "entrance" feeder because my entrances are at the top of the hive not the bottom near the feeder. 

Since I use top entrances, I thought it would be a bad idea to put the feed at the top because *that* would be too close to the entrance. So I use a boardman feeder at the bottom but there is NO entrance there. It's all closed up at the bottom.


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## notaclue (Jun 30, 2005)

I use the front feeders for water primarily. Top feeders for new bees and sometimes I have to use the front feeders in a top box as atop feeder. But normally for water during summer drought...


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

I haven't had any robbing but I'm not going to wait around for it to happen. I'm going to Home Depot to get those small buckets and start top feeding. You guys convinced me. Thanks for you responses.


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## Cris (Mar 10, 2011)

I've been using a boardman feeder exclusively since I installed in Apr, but I don't think there's another hive, feral or kept, anywhere close to me. Before my own bees I rarely saw honey bees at home (had some neat bumbles though!) I like the boardman because I don't have open anything at all to refill, which is good since it's been so wet all this time.

Can I get a night off that isn't raining and warmer than 60degrees already? I do kinda want to do an inspection at some point this month!


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## Bee Goddess (May 11, 2011)

Unlike others on this forum, I am not an expert and I can only vouch for what works for me. I learned from old timers and experienced bee keepers, who didn't have internet, books or educated folks telling them what to do. I have had up to 150 hives at one point and selling honey in 55 gallon, food grade drums, with just 2 of us working it. I am now smaller because it's a 1 woman operation. A little over 10 years experience. No book or single person has got a corner on the bee market and education and can vouch 100% that a certain idea will work for everyone and every hive. It just ain't gonna happen.

I can only suggest you listen to others, then see what works for you. That's what you go with. Bee Keeping is a gamble, you win, you lose, you learn. 

I use front feeders and have never had any robbing issues. 
Several issues can cause robbing. I currently have 20 hives and 13 nucs in my field. I feed, from the front, any that seem to need it. Flow or no flow. Of course my bees have plenty of honey stored in the frames in the hive and aren't in starvation mode, therefore no need to rob.

I also help a fellow beekeeper with his hives, that's 3 more yards I work, mostly because he doesn't have the confidence in himself yet. So I work the hives, make suggestions and he chooses what he wants to do with his bees. 

I also have a steady 40 hour a week job to support my bee keeping addiction. 

Earth Chik Apiaries ~ Makin Life A Little Sweeter.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

Cris,

You should get a pass for using front feeders. Oregon? I lived there 24 years. I can't imagine keeping bees there. You almost have to keep them in a heated barn to do an inspection.


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## PeteSJCA (Jun 17, 2011)

Hi, I just set up my first hive this week, and read somewhere to give the new colony 1:1 sugar water. I placed an entrance feeder with the syrup about 3 days ago and the bees aren't touching it.... Does this mean anything? Are they finding enough nectar?


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## Virginia Bee (May 20, 2010)

I use top feeders only. I bought some with 4 holes in it from Kelley's in KY and they look just like the ones in the first posts of this thread.

I have very good luck with them. I like the ones with 4 holes and I rotate the number of Qt jars of 1:1 I put on it based on usage. I like the ones with 4 holes since you usually only put 1-2 jars in in leaving the screened other holes to act as a top vent. Works pretty good that way.


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## Bee Goddess (May 11, 2011)

OOOPS! Quick apology, sorry ya'll. I use the glass jars with holes in the lids as top feeders. For some odd reason, I had it in my mind, that everyone was talking about the gallon buckets that are clamped at the lip and the feed drips through the screen. THOSE are the ones that drowned my bees and were a pain. The standard top feeders I use, especially for my nucs, so it doesn't block the entrance. Works great and I can monitor how much they are taking in and when it needs to be refilled without disturbing the hive.


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