Hello Brian - I live in the middle of something approaching a nectar 'desert' - thousands of acres of cabbages, sprouts, sugar beet - with just the occasional few fields of Oil Seed Rape (Canola). There's really not enough of a honey harvest to make extraction worthwhile - so I don't bother, and the bees keep what they make. However, one good aspect of living in this environment is that there are very few other beekeepers 'within range', so the large number of drones I will be raising will no doubt dominate the local gene pool. I tend to think of my operation as 'bee-farming' rather than 'honey-farming'.
Hi John - the following method of feeding is one I'm now really happy with (it took me a short while to iron out a few bugs) - and I can't see me ever changing it. It's based on inverted jar feeders, over open holes rather than mesh, so that solid food can be fed as well as syrup. The absence of mesh does mean that changing jars requires more care than if mesh were in place. What I do is slide a sheet of thin but stiff plastic (think old-style X-Ray film) under the jar, in order to cover the feed hole, then remove the jar. I place a small weight on top of the plastic if it's windy. Then, refill or swap the jar, place it over the hole, and withdraw the plastic. A little practice, and it soon becomes second nature.
I found that drawing marks across the hole helps to centre the jar, which can be useful if the jar diameter is close to the hole diameter in the insulation (see later) and thus without much in the way of clearance.
Ok - so this is the basic set-up. I drill holes in the Crown Board (inner cover) - four in each Long Hive and full-sized vertical hive, and 2 in each Nuc.
The spacing between holes is always the same, so that insulation can be swopped if needs be. Here's an example of insulation - two layers of polysytrene stuck together with wood glue.
And just the one jar (for cold weather use) has a cover, again made from polystyrene & wood glue.
With feeder shell and telescopic roof over - that's pretty-much my standard set-up. Feeders for Long Hives and Nucs are very similar.
One question I'm often asked is "how do you cut the holes and bungs so neatly ?"
The secret is an old tin can:
Just serrate one edge of the can, and use as a hole cutter. Cut a 1.5" hole in the other end of the can, and use a piece of broom handle to push the blanks out, then glue the blanks together to make bungs.
I just love this as a system - to check feed, just lift off the roof and jar cover. Only if the jar's empty do you need to lift away the insulation and swap jars. For autumn (fall) rapid feeding, I fill four jars with 2:1 at the same time, as four jars = 1/2 gallon. We don't have the BIG Mason jars which you guys have.
Hope this info is useful,
LJ
