Setting up to feed: the empty super, the crown board and the feeder

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The problem an empty super solves

Nearly every feeder sits on top of the crown board, over the feed hole. That means it needs somewhere to be, and a roof sitting straight on a crown board leaves nowhere. So you need a box with nothing in it between the crown board and the roof.

An empty super is the standard answer. It is the right depth for most feeders. You almost certainly own one, and in September you have spare ones anyway.

The same box does a second job. Vita’s instructions for Apiguard say to leave space above the brood frames for the bees to reach the tray, using a spacer or preferably an empty super. 3 So the box you put on for the treatment in August is the box the feeder goes in during September. Putting the varroa treatment on covers that side of it.

The barely-used super has found its job

If you took a super off that the bees hardly touched, this is what it is for. Take the frames out, store them properly, and keep the empty box for feeding and treating.

Do not leave the frames in and put the feeder on top of them. The bees will work up into that comb, store syrup in it, and you have made a second brood box you did not want, in the wrong place, going into winter.

Those frames want cleaning, freezing and storing like any other drawn comb, even if there was barely anything in them.

Eke or super

An eke is a shallow rim, usually 50 to 75 mm. A super is around 150 mm on a National. Which you want depends on what is going in it.

• Eke: enough for a block of fondant on the top bars, or a treatment tray. Cheap, light, and less empty space for the bees to have to keep warm.
• Super: enough for any feeder, including the tall ones. This is what you want in autumn.

The NBU makes the same point about fondant: put it on the top bars and you need an eke or an upturned feeder to make room for it. 1

Which feeder

Four kinds are common. You cannot swap one for another, and the right one depends mostly on how much you need to get in and how often you want to visit.

Contact or bucket feeder, 1 to 4 litres

A bucket or round tub with a gauze disc in the lid, filled and turned upside down over the feed hole. A vacuum holds the syrup in and the bees take it through the mesh.

Cheap, almost no drowning, and good for small amounts and for nucs. Two catches. It has to be genuinely airtight or it empties itself into the hive. A big temperature swing can make it drip anyway. Before it goes on, fill it and invert it over a bucket first until the drip stops.

Round rapid feeder, 1 to 4 litres

A round tray with a central chimney and a cover over it. Bees come up the middle, round under the cover and down to the syrup. Easy to top up without opening anything much, and few drownings.

For one or two hives, it is the sensible everyday feeder. The smaller ones need refilling often in autumn, which is the main argument for going bigger.

Tray feeder, 4 to 6 litres and up

An Ashforth or Miller feeder is a tray the full footprint of the box, with a slot or a channel the bees come up. Use this one for autumn feeding. A 6 litre fill is a big step towards what a colony needs and it means one trip instead of five.

Get one with a proper bee-tight cover over the access slot, and check it sits flat. A tray feeder that is not level leaves syrup stranded at one end.

Frame feeder

A plastic tank shaped like a frame, hung inside the brood box in place of one. It is out of the weather and useful in a nuc, but it costs you a frame of space and it drowns more bees than the others. Make sure it has a decent ladder in it, or float something in it.

Stopping bees drowning

Any open syrup wants something for the bees to stand on. Most bought feeders have a ladder or a rough wall moulded in. If yours does not, float a handful of clean straw, some twigs, or a piece of bubble wrap on the surface. It costs nothing and it works.

Bee-tight, or you have built a robbing station

A feeder full of warm syrup with a gap into it is the most attractive thing in the apiary. Robbing is a real problem in late summer. 2

• Everything that is not the access route must be closed. Tape over spare crown board holes.
• Check the empty super sits flat on the crown board with no gap at the corners.
• Roof on properly, and weighted or strapped.
• Fill and refill in the evening, and wipe up every drip. 2
• Reduce the entrance on weak colonies before you start.

Wasps at the hive covers entrance blocks and screens.

Insulation goes above, not instead

Once the feeder comes off, that empty super is a good place for a block of insulation over the crown board. Keep the ventilation the hive is designed to have. The NBU says insulation may be used where winters are particularly harsh, provided good ventilation is maintained, and that it is damp rather than cold that kills colonies. 2

Taking it all off again

Three things to do before winter proper:

• Take the feeder off once they have stopped taking syrup. Syrup left standing grows mould. 2
• Take the empty super off, or fill the space with insulation. An empty box left over a colony is space they have to keep warm. 2 They will fill it with brace comb given the chance. 1
• Take the queen excluder out. If it is left in, a winter cluster can move up through it after stores and leave the queen behind to die. 2

Wash feeders in hot water and let them dry fully before they go away. Dried syrup ferments, and next September you want to be feeding, not scrubbing.

The rest of the autumn list is in the last proper look before winter.

The short version

• An empty super over the crown board is the space a feeder needs, and the same box suits the treatment.
• Take the frames out of it. Do not feed on top of comb.
• A 6 litre tray feeder is the autumn answer, because it is one trip.
• Bee-tight everywhere, fill in the evening, wipe up spills.
• Feeder off, empty box off, excluder out, before the cold.