I agree with Mr Van I would not place open feeding very close to hives either. I do however us boardman feeders without any problems even now. We have had temperatures as low as 18f recently, and no problem with freezing or bursting jars. I am feeding this particular way for the administration of honey bee healthy knock off, (less lemongrass added), targeting each hive specifically. See the topic posted here recently about honey freezing and busting. I suppose sugar water does not bust and freeze either. At least not in my experience. I do feed openly, Ultra Bee pollen sub. This is placed several feet, (60 to 100), from my apiarys. There are other ways that I feed also but I do not want to get to far off subject.
Phillip
Do you feed all winter as well?
Yes in a way I do, I place feed on top of the frames, mountain camp style, for emergencies and I also leave boardman feeders laced with honey-bee healthy, actually it is not honey-bee healthy by name, but a mixture that I learned from Don Kuchenmeister and Joe May.
To avoid robbing I do not use lemongrass oil in the mix as some folks do, as this is a real strong attraction to bees. I do not want to take a chance of jump-starting robbing even in the off season. So just to be cautions, I leave lemongrass out. I also open feed pollen all winter.
There are many days that the weather is just to cold for the bees to get out and forage here in my area. There are many nights that the temperatures here are in the low 20s and many days that the temperature never makes it up to freezing. In fact we have already had some nights that were in the teens and it is not even winter yet. However, I did notice last winter, anytime the temperature is 43 or above I will see bees gathering the pollen substitute.
I talked to David at Barnyard Bees last year an he assured me that my nucs would come out of winter busting at the seams using these methods and he was right. All seven nucs (as I made late season splits of my hives and added mated queens as needed to these splits, and I mean LATE season splits) not only survived but thrived.
Phillip