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.