# Communal Feeding



## bschmidtbauer (Feb 28, 2005)

Hello all, I've got a quick question. Can you just fill one large feeder and fill it with sugar syrup and leave it outside for fall feeding. My plan is to use a chicken waterer with sponges. Will this increase robbing tendencies? Thanks.


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

Open feeding can be used to stimulate the hives for brood or winter weight.
But, it will become a *major robbing event*.
The problem with open feeding is that the target hives that are light in weight do not get as much syrup as the stronger hives.
Open feeding spreads disease and invites your local bees to the meal.
I fed 120 gallons of syrup last week and the bees emptied the 30 gallon containers in 4 hours! 
:thumbsup:I would suggest an alternate plan on feeding like inside feeders or top feeders.
I like the one gallon and bigger bucket feeders.
Regards,
Ernie Lucas Apiaries


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## bschmidtbauer (Feb 28, 2005)

Oh, one thing I forgot to tell you guys is that I can't really use a top feeder because I am treating with Mite-Away 2.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

One problem w/ open feeding is that the hives that need feeding don't benefit from the open source as much as those that don't need the feed. The stronger colonies get more and the weaker ones get less.


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

> But, it will become a major robbing event.


Not necessarily. I open feed when all of the hives need stores and it works out well. It actually does not promote robbing as all hives are being fed. You get robbing when you try to feed just the weak ones during a dearth. If open feeding promoted robbing, so would a flow. You will get some fighting at the feeder, so it's best to have more than one. It's also good to be away from the immediate area of the hives. I find the other side of a building or behind some bushes or trees is enough. This just spreads out the bees. 



> Open feeding spreads disease


 Why? Do you have sick bees?



> I fed 120 gallons of syrup last week and the bees emptied the 30 gallon containers in 4 hours


 Exactly, its a great way to get a lot of feed to a lot of hives in a hurry. Its tough to feed 120 gallons one gallon at a time to 50 hives, and sometimes just not practical.



> The stronger colonies get more and the weaker ones get less.


 Yes, just like a flow. If they all need food, that's as it should be. If only a few need it, there are better ways.


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## Wax Moth (Jun 15, 2008)

Communal feeding can lead to fighting between bees from different colonies and thereby dead bees. You can also end up feeding the yellow jackets and ants as much as the bees.

Not sure about spreading disease. Putting your supers in the open for all bees to clean spreads disease. Had not heard that communal feeding spread disease.


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

you can feed and mite away at the same time!


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

I've never seen a yellow jacket able to elbow himself into the trough through the bees. I usually end up with a cup or so of dead bees, nothing more. Ants simply don't have time to find it before its cleaned up. 

I move supers and frames from hive to hive all the time, as well as letting the bees clean the supers and the extractor. I haven't lost a hive in several years. I would only worry if they were supers that didn't come from my hives. Do you mark your supers to be returned to a particular hive year after year?


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## sc-bee (May 10, 2005)

>Do you mark your supers to be returned to a particular hive year after year?

Very good point there Ross!


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## dcross (Jan 20, 2003)

Put it at least 300 ft. from the hives. I use five gallon pails with at least six inches of grass on top of the syrup. If I see fighting(haven't yet) I would add more pails.


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

*Why? Do you have sick bees?*

*No sick bees!*
How about some *positive *thinking?
It is a fact that open feeding can spread diseases.
Ernie


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

Ok, I'm positive it doesn't......


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

Put a dead bee with Nosema spores (and God knows what elese) 
in its gut in a small pool of syrup, then let the other bees drink out of it.
Sounds like a good way to spread diseases to me. If that matters in the
grand scheme of things, I don't know. It does, however, show one
way diseases could jump to wild bees, if the pathogen can make the leap.


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

And drones move from hive to hive all the time. Next....


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

I open feed my home nuc yard which has late splits and test hives. It does not spread disease anymore than other posible vectors. And if you have healthy bees what does that matter? As Ross noted....drones, as well as drifting and other things spread disease to the point I find worrying about open feeding not worth it.

Open feeding means the bees stay away from robbing stiuations. And strong hives which take more feed, does the work for weaker hives. Why just feed weak or light hives? Let them all be productive. And with open feeding, the bees can only process and store what they can bring into the hive.

I can fill feeders each morning and not open or disturb hives.

Here are couple pictures...

http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x236/BjornBee/?action=view&current=Beepictures059.jpg

http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x236/BjornBee/?action=view&current=Beepictures095.jpg


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## beenovice (Jun 19, 2007)

Bjorn how far away from your hives you have feeders ?


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Those particular pictures are from a station about 60 feet from the edge of the apiary.

You will see some chaos and confusion the first day when using this little distance. I do favor more than that. But after the first day, the bees are tuned into the location.


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## ACBEES (Mar 13, 2009)

I have been researching this idea of communal sugar syrup feeding. Randy Oliver recomended in one of his posts on his site "scientific beekeeping" reading the book "fat bees, skinny bees" by an Australian author. In that book, numerous commercial beeks(ranging from 300-2000 hives) said they used communal feeding with no evidence of robbing or spreading of disease.

I can see some major pros of this approach to feeding syrup: Less labor, less investment in equipment and less disturbing of the bees. Right now, I'm trying to come up with a system to deliver syrup for 50 hives.

If you use communal syrup feeding, would you share how you do it? If you have experience with communal feeding could you also share your pros and cons. Thanks


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

I made a 5 gallon bucket feeder like the one discussed here. Works good.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234157&highlight=bucket

I've seen some that use a bunch of boardman style feeders lined up in a row, Chicken feeders with gravel in the bottom, and a inverted 5 gallon bucket style.


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## MABee (Jun 18, 2007)

How does the inverted five gallon bucket work? Or how is it made?


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

Here is the 5 gallon inverted one that I have seen.

http://wvbeekeeper.blogspot.com/2008/03/communal-feeding.html


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## MABee (Jun 18, 2007)

Thanks Hambone. I saw a pic in ABJ of a commercial beek using inverted pails, looked to be 2 -3 gallons, stacked on top of one another on a pallet. The bees looked to be feeding from the rim of where the lid attached to the bucket.


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## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

I have a little different approach to feeding with 5 gallon buckets. I bought some of those plastic trays like you set large flower pots in -- about 2" high and about 15" across. I put the lid loosely on the bucket of syrup and quickly invert the bucket and set it in the tray while holding the lid to make sure it doesn't pop off. I suppose you could just hold the tray over the bucket while flipping it over, but it's tougher to keep from spilling some.

Then tilt the bucket and push the lid off a little and insert a small stick between the lid and bucket. The syrup will only come out as high as the rim of the bucket -- same principle as the chicken waterer.

It saves drilling holes in buckets and there's no leakage due to temperature variations, loose lids, etc.


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## beeking1 (Jan 22, 2010)

Ross,
We live in an area where it seems that every beekeeper has Italian or half breeds of some sort, in addition to the feral bees. The 'other' beekeepers don't appear as fastidious as we are caring for our bees e.g. leave their hives unattended much of the season, esp the late summer and fall. When The Dearth hit this year, we fed with division feeders inside the hive. As a result, clouds of Italian bees and their minions lined up for the kill. We reduced the entrances and put wet sheets over the hive around 10am and built screened anti robbing devices over the entrances. There is absolutely no way we could have fed our hives at the communal watering hole.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

beeking1,

I too was doing a little open feeding, but discovered that not just my bees were taking advantage of this opportunity. I can't afford to feed my neighbor's bees or all the feral colonies within range. And whenever I've done open feeding it seems the bees spend almost as much time fighting and killing each other as they do feeding, but they even do that when they're harvesting water from my koi pond.

But I really like to watch the process of open feeding. It's just amazing how so much feed can disappear so fast. If only it were going to only my own hives.

And in some ways feeding may be a way to encourage the continuation of colonies that fail to forage (fend) for themselves. I say this because there always seem to be a few colonies that keep bringing in pollen and nectar, when even I can't find any flowers anywhere.


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## ACBEES (Mar 13, 2009)

Thanks for all your comments. I guess being in a remote area will be to my advantage in regards to not feeding everyone elses bees. If ferals show up, maybe I can line them and find where the colony is camped. Some have mentioned fighting at the communal feeder. I have read if this is happening, providing more feeder space cures it.

Has anyone used anything bigger than a five gallon bucket? I will be feeding in the neighborhood of 50 hives.


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## Pete0 (Mar 30, 2002)

I read somewhere, sometime on a webpage that a beek was feeding using 55 gal drums. Covered the syrup (think it was HFCS) with straw.

I open feed on these warm January days we are having here in Virginia. Today mid-40's, tomorrow high 50's, Friday high is to be 35 and Saturday 31 with snow! That cluster is like an accordian.

Good luck,


Pete0
Bena, VA


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