Joe you should get a Patten for that. Great job man 👍 this is why I love the Beekeeping community. Beekeeper's helping beekeeper's. Thanks, good health and God bless 👍
I've tryed several feeders that didn't work very well. What is working very well is a 5 gal chicken waterer with the trough part filled with marble size gravel, not seeing any drowned bees, easy to refill, and relatively cheap.
I've been using a plastic queen excluder cut to fit (cause it floats) tote and as long as thin syrup hasn't been a problem, but I bet those noodles float better , I'm gonna try that, thanks
Joe, have you ever considered doing a drone video of your house/home yard? In your videos, I can see many hives but it'd be great to see your entire layout from above. Neat idea on the noodles.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay thay are used for gardening. You can find them online or at most hydroponic or gardening centers. Sometimes called hydration pebbles.
Joe, thanks for sharing this idea, it was just what I was looking for. I think you have lots of good ideas, and RU-vid would share them with more people if you edit some of the silent spots out of your videos.
Put porch screen under it. $7 a roll. Or those foamy cupboard liners from dollar store. They float and bees can land and drink through webbing. No construction required. Just cut and drop in container. Pour over it.
Good video, Joe. We are going into dearth and I was just about to start bucket feeding but will give this a shot. I can place mine on the far side of the house and garage for my home yard a put one 100 yards from my out yard, which will save me a ton of time. Thanks as always. Stu
@@B3RG3RS0N Not well. I majorrobbing outbreak. Last year’s weather wasstrange, though. Very hot and very dry. What little honey the bees put up way too dry to spin out. This may have exacerbated the robbing implulse.
I do mine still with bath mat,it’s longer than my tote so it comes up the ends..then I took the drawer mat made 3” wide strips stapled it from inside below the holes I drilled,then cut my staples off were it come through my tote,put silicone over then wood glue..got 3 none leak and if the bee’s get covered in syrup they can crawl up the drawer mat…cut my drowning down a lot…
Fantastic, just yesterday bought 2 bales of straw to get ready. Had good luck with fresh straw but as you said it gets messy! What kind of glue did you use?
Hi Joe. This is very interesting. I guess we can take thus idea and make it as large or small as needed? It has been a year since you posted this so do you still like this system? Any suggestions which may differ now than before?
I made a feeder based on your design. The bees are eating the syrup like crazy. Today they went through 4 gallons in 5 hours. I do not have any idea how much (volume) should be fed on a daily basis. Is there a formula, based on hive numbers or some other way, to determine how much should be fed? Do you fill the tote to the top, allowing for the mat thickness or do you simply pour in a 5 gallon bucket full and call it a day? I am in the north Atlanta, Georgia area. Thanks.
It depends if you have a bunch of small hives you are tiring to build up I feed 1:1 about a quart a day per hive. If i have big hives I feed .25:1 just to keep them from robbing. You just have to watch the bees it's not how much you feed it's putting a little out 3 or 4 times a day keeping the bees busy. I usually put 4 gallons out 3 times a day. If I were to feed them all they want it would be 50 gallons a day. After the golden rod comes in the fall I won't open feed, I will go to 2:1 on top of the hives giving them all they want.
w What type glue you using Joe to hold them together, thanks for your videos I send all my bee customers to your channel to learn how to keep bees. OldDans Bees Providence NC.
Joe are using 1 to 1 sugar water or pro sweet and do you feed constantly during the nectar dearth or do you feed for a few days a week and then stop for a while. how much sugar water do you go thru in a week? I have 30 Nuc's and 10 honey hives. been using the feeder buckets like Barn Yard this year, tried your way last year with the bath mats but drowned a lot of bees.
It dose but I would not open feed unless I had over 20 hive. My be will be closer than the neighbor's so they will get the bulk of the feed it is worth it to me for time saving. Now if your neighbor has 100 hive and you only have 20 that won't work very well.
Little Bits Honey Bees joe mayI had a friend whose neighbor was not open feeding his bees because he knew that he was doing so . This is not something that is talked about and that is why I brought it up. I had not thought about that aspect of the open feeding and I wonder how many have? Thank you for your videos I realy learn a lot from them.
What do you mean by 'line of sight'? Can you explain this better? (This phrase was mentioned when you said to prevent robbing it has to be 100 yards away or line of sight' of the hives.)
Hey Joe....Robb here from Seattle..Yu said you have your open feeders on the other side of your house.. and you say the tubs should be over 100 yards away? I dont own property of over 100 yards...I watched this a couple times and to my understanding as long as the tub is not in dirrect sight of hives? I want to place mine on other side of house not seen by bee yard but is only like 25 yards away..maybe less...would this be an okay place?
I found that those yellow lids where confusing my bees with the light that goes though them, i had bees ballin up inside. I pulled the lids of the top and balling stoped, ive been using the shower mats that you featured last year, any reason you switched to the pool toys?
What brand contact cement do you use Joe? I do not know if all contact cement has the same ingredients, that may make a difference? Thanks Phillip Hall
You really have to look at the comb. Make sure they have open nectar in the summer but not to much queen needs plenty of room to lay. In late fall it ok to plug the hive out.
