Good morning. (we're in very different time-zones ...
)
It sounds like these will be fine for your application - but there's only one sure way to find out if they fit in with 'bee-logic' !
Ants ? Sure, they're a pain in the backside when using any kind of open feeder. Luckily, our British ants are nowhere near as problematic as those you have in some parts of the States, and a sprinkling of cinnamon powder (see 2nd picture, previous post) is all that's usually required to persuade them to look elsewhere. If I lived in the States, then I'd be looking at making hive supports with legs standing inside water or oil jugs, or maybe with disks fixed to their legs (like anti-rat disks fitted to ship's mooring lines), with grease smeared onto their undersides. Something like that ...
I can't honestly see any point in covering the feed container, as the ants will simply climb up the feeder woodwork and gain access via that route ...
'Yes' to the mating nuc cover - that was just a mock-up for a photograph. Here's a shot of one being used last week when I recovered a queenless pauper swarm (in February !) which was housed for a week on 3 drawn frames inside one half of a 6-frame nuc, until I could rig-up a means of combining them:
With fondant in a small jar, and 50/50 honey + syrup mix in the feeder for moisture, the box was sealed (and strapped) as it was being kept in the house for warmth. This style of feeder proved ideal, as it supplied ventilation as well as the syrup mix which was initially sucked up like a sponge so they must have been quite dehydrated. The swarm has now been relocated on top of a full-sized hive, for combining.
'best
LJ