# Feeders for TBH



## Hillbillynursery (Nov 13, 2003)

I am going to use a false wall(follower board) as well. Boardman feeder a just mason jars with hole punched in the lid but with a special box made for it to slide into the enterance. I have had good luck feeding over the inner cover with jars having holes punched in the lid. I plan on setting the quart jars on pieces of 3/8 wood to hold them up so the bees can get to it. These will be placed just in front of the false wall. As to how many bars, I think about 6 to 8. This is larger than a 5 frame nuc which is what most say is best to start packages in. I plan on giving plenty of room ahead of them drawing bars. Your Idea of giving them the entrance feeder should work well but it calls for you making 2 board and the one will not be used after they are going good.


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## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

I was goign to construct a division board feeder like thing.

Another alternative is to make a 3 petalled flower of 3 boardman feeders and place it as a "feeding station" a short distance from the hive. As far as I know this also help limit the robbing instinct. At least so I have heard.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Another alternative is to make a 3 petalled flower of 3 boardman feeders and place it as a "feeding station" a short distance from the hive. As far as I know this also help limit the robbing instinct. At least so I have heard.

I don't know about a "short distance". I'd prefer a "long distance". A few hundred yards would nice, but I never get that luxuray because if I went that far I'd be by my back door.

Feeding during a dearth almost always sets off robbing. In hive, out of hive open feeding etc. Of course the other thing about open feeding is it depends on if there are other bees in your area besides yours. You could be feeding all the neigbor's hives.

I AM doing open feeding right now in the hopes that it will decrease robbing. But I don't know if it helps that much anyway. I do have a few feral bees that show up now and then. I'm guessing they are a good distance away since they don't show up that often and not in great numbers.


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## limulus (Feb 10, 2004)

I know another new beekeeper here in maryland that started a packagte of bees last year with no feeding, and they did fine. I thought about that, but I am getting my bees pretty early, April 3rd, and also am not using a Lang' that already has foundation in it so I thought they would benfit from some supplemental feeding (maybe a pollen patty or two as well?)at least until they have some comb built and some pollen in.


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## limulus (Feb 10, 2004)

http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/files/topbar-bfdj38.pdf 

here is another Idea for a feeder that fits in to the hive, it looks like a bit more work though.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

You could do the baggie feeder. take nice thick syrup (corn syrup is thick enough) or your own honey and put it in a baggie and poke some holes or slits in it and put it in the back of the hive on the bottom.
http://www.beesource.com/eob/baggie.htm 

Here is some info on a baggie feeder. It's usually on the top bars, but I don't know why it wouldn't work on the bottom.


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## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

What I did on my first tbh (since I didn't want a standard size front entrance) was built my own entrance feeder that would hold a one gallon jar, and I cut a notch out of the side of the hive just the size needed for the feeder I built. I put a supporting brace on the hive stand to support the weight of the gallon feeder. Since the feeder was located toward the back of the hive, and nowhere near the entrance, I didn't have a problem with other bees trying to rob it. I'm going to build another tbh this year and use the same method.


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## txbeeguy (Jan 9, 2003)

I'm using a standard "entrance feeder" (holding a half gallon jar).


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