# Baggie Feeders



## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

Better to put about four slits with a razor that are a HALF inch long, not an inch long. I did 1" cuts once and the cuts wanted to start leaking. Keep the cuts smaller and near the middle. Don't fill the gallon bag more than 2/3 full. Lay it right on top of the frames. If you have a shim, use that instead of a whole super for height.
I think you'd be ok checking the baggie every other day. Keep extra bags in the fridge to keep from fermenting. Let them come to room temp before laying on the frames.
Remember you can't easily pull up frames once the baggie is lying there, because when you move it the syrup starts leaking out all over- so do any frame inspecting in between when you take off an empty bag and put a new one.


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## mbcpa (Feb 10, 2011)

Thank you. 

Let me follow up my decent question with a few dumb ones.

How long does it take syrup to ferment?
I have a gallon left from last wednesday that is sitting in the garage. Is it no good?
How long will it keep in the fridge?

What is this shim you speak of? Is it something I buy or something I make? What are the dimensions?

thanks


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## Jaseemtp (Nov 29, 2010)

I have been using the baggies to feed and it has worked out great. I do not have any trouble with burr comb. Omie is right that if you want to poke around in the hive its best to do it when the old bag is empty and you are ready to give them a new bag.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Easy as that?

This will likely result in a lot of wild comb in the empty super. If you make a shim just big enough, it will lead to a LITTLE wild comb in the shim. Never give a hive in the spring room or they will build comb in it.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Jaseemtp said:


> if you want to poke around in the hive its best to do it when the old bag is empty and you are ready to give them a new bag.


or place a queen excluder on first and lay the bag on it, then you can lift the bag off with feed in it if you need to get in the hive.


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## signalten (Feb 27, 2011)

Barry said:


> or place a queen excluder on first and lay the bag on it, then you can lift the bag off with feed in it if you need to get in the hive.


Great idea. At least I can get some use out of the excluders


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## Beetrucker74 (Oct 10, 2010)

I am trying to put the bag on the inner cover off to the side of to center hole, that way i can check everyone and the ones that need i can just let the telescoping cover off and have just a small opening in the center. I have pollin patties on so I put hole in the patty for the bees to go through. Most of the 15 i did like that started to come up onto baggy right a way after some syrup went into the hole.


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## mbcpa (Feb 10, 2011)

How long will sugar syrup last before it starts to ferment?


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## bigbore (Feb 25, 2008)

you have about a 3 0r 4 days before it starts to ferment. I use a candy board type box for feeding through baggies. then I can pick up the feeder with the bag in it to inspect. got a hole in the middle like a solid inner for access, and I don't have a problem with burr comb in the box.


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## mbcpa (Feb 10, 2011)

How long will the syrup last in the fridge?


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

bigbore said:


> you have about a 3 0r 4 days before it starts to ferment.


My 2 gallon pail feeders take a lot longer than 3 or 4 days for a colony to empty and I've never noticed any signs of it fermenting in that short a period of time when I go the refill them. 

Maybe it's our cool Maine climate, but 3 or 4 days seems a little fast even for the South.

Wayne


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Don't use baggies, they're expensive. I just use old bread bags. Just make sure they've no holes. I fill them after I place then in old plastic coffee containers. Tie them into a knot when filled. A couple of pin pricks on top once placed on the hive and you're done. I don't like to fill then as much as a baggie as I'm not quite sure of their bursting strength ....... but they're free.


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## beeware10 (Jul 25, 2010)

we use 1 gal zip lock baggies. the freezer ones are thicker and less likley to leak. we fill 1/2 full. over filling will cause them to leak. a good hive will empty overnight. free bread bags can be expensive if the syrup leaks out. freezer bags are the cheapest feeder. also the hive needs to be level. we make two slits about 3 inches long. have fed 100's of hives this way. our spacer is 2 inches high. If you have much burr comb you left the shim on too long. we use 2 bags per hive so they get 1 gal of syrup.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

beeware10 said:


> free bread bags can be expensive if the syrup leaks out.


Quite true, but it has yet to happen......


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## TheCompound (Jan 24, 2011)

mbcpa said:


> Thank you.
> What is this shim you speak of? Is it something I buy or something I make? What are the dimensions?


I don't think this was specifically answered and was a question I had the first time I heard the term. It's a spacer that is the same dimensions as the hive boxes you are using with a height of 2-3". It accommodates baggie feeders in the spring and works well in the fall/winter if you're adding sugar or fondant. You can probably buy them somewhere, but they're easy to build. They're not left on the hives year round and don't need to be built with fancy joints. Butt joints are fine for the shims.


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## j.kuder (Dec 5, 2010)

here is a video link of a shim. you can use it to feed or you can make a double screen or you can add screen to one side and fill with wood chips for winter cover. they can also be made different heights for different applications. mine are 2 and 1/2 inches tall. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSXXUC1ZN5s


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

snl said:


> Don't use baggies, they're expensive. I just use old bread bags. Just make sure they've no holes. I fill them after I place then in old plastic coffee containers. Tie them into a knot when filled. A couple of pin pricks on top once placed on the hive and you're done. I don't like to fill then as much as a baggie as I'm not quite sure of their bursting strength ....... but they're free.


They're not free, you have to buy the bread don't you?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Place a honey super for height.
>Place the inner cover.
>Place the outer cover.
>Put a longer entrance reducer on the bottom board.
>Easy as that?

In the fall when there is no longer a flow. That could work. In the spring before there is a flow, it might work. The problem is all that empty space in the super. The bee will build comb in it as soon as they decide to build comb and you will have a mess. The smaller the space where the baggie is the better (as long as you don't squish the bag and drown the bees). So making a feeding shim would help a lot in insuring they don't build a lot of comb somewhere they shouldn't.


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## marant (Jan 18, 2014)

I used the baggie method when I started this spring, but I put the inner cover on, placed the baggie on it, then used a super for space with the tele top on that. Bees came through the hole to the baggie without a problem. Did not have any comb built in the upper spacer super at all. Maybe because the bees think of the inner cover as the top of the hive?


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Ok, I'll take off at a tangent for a moment. 

You've already got the jars and lids from the entrance feeders. You're using inner covers and are talking about using a super to cover the baggies so you have these pieces of equipment. You could stand the jar upside down over the escape hole in the inner cover, set the super on top of the inner cover and then cover with the top. To insure that no bees gets into the super/shim you could staple some #8 wire mesh over the hole and stand the jar up on that. In addition to the oblong escape hole I've also drilled an extra round hole in my inner covers and screened over them for feeding (screened over the escape holes, too). I simply stand the quart jars upside down on the screens and the bees do the rest. The height of the super will just allow a quart jar to fit beneath the top. But, you can simply use the escape holes with no screening...it works, though bees will get into the "empty" super...maybe they'll build comb, maybe they won't...if you're inspecting the syrup every 2-3 days you should be able to thwart any comb building.

My mentor uses baggies to feed with and does well with them. I started out *trying* to use them with the first little nuc of bees I had. It was not good conditions when I got them...November....wet and cool...and me being a very, very green newbie. The baggies leaked and ended up killing some bees. This was just a handful of queenless bees that I was tinkering with to get use to handling bees before I got my colonies in the spring and it wasn't that many dead bees but in my eyes I had murdered them through my ignorance. I went to jars and haven't looked back. That was *me*, though. There are many, many people using baggie feeders with great success...my mentor being one of those people.  I just wanted to throw that option of jar feeding through the inner cover at you in case it had been overlooked.

Just some thoughts FWIW, 
Ed


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Maybe because the bees think of the inner cover as the top of the hive? 

Sometimes... sometimes not...


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## RudyT (Jan 25, 2012)

you mentioned putting a hole in the patty.
Smaller pieces of patty are better -- less breeding time for small hive beetles in the area, and not block the heat rising to the sugar baggie.


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