Plastic Hive Top Feeder

This feeder didn't work as well as I hoped. Early on in the season, I had a major problem with many ants getting in and drowning, potentially contaminating the syrup for the bees. At the time of spring feeding, I switched to the mason jar feeding method, which worked great, although I was topping up their feed every few days or so. Come fall feeding time, for giving my bees extra stores for the winter ahead, I thought I might have solved the ant problem by putting tape all along the sides of the lid so the ants couldn't get in and replacing the tape whenever I top up the syrup for the bees. It solved the ant problem, however, when I opened it this afternoon, I was heartbroken to see a whole bunch of my bees had drowned, which shouldn't have happened from the way it was designed! Also, in the week or so since I gave them their first fall feeding, they had hardly consumed a noticable amount, probably because they were drowning, that and the capacity is probably far too much for the bees to consume before it needs to be replaced. Cleaning it, I've found is also a chore, as bees cling to the underside of the cone and shaking them off just makes a sticky mess! Overall, I'm not impressed with this product and have since switched back to my original mason jar feeding method.

Best feeder I've used.

I just got my first bees a few days ago and was directed to feed them sugar syrup to stimulate brood production. Luckily I was prepared with this hive top feeder which works very well. The bees crawl up out of the inner cover hole and down the textured cone so they can get at the sugar water. While this feeder can hold a large capacity of liquid, I have noticed my bees haven't consumed a significant amount of it over the last few days, though every time I check on it, there are several bees drinking it at a time. I am planning when it's time to replace with fresh syrup, I will go with half of what I gave them last time and see what happens.