Dry PRO Feeder USA

01 · HOW DRY FEEDING WORKS

They carry it in themselves, like pollen

Instead of making patties and putting them in hive by hive, you fill the hopper with powdered protein feed and leave it at the stand. The foragers carry it in as if it were field pollen and store it in the hive to eat later. With eight dispensers and up to 15.4 kg of capacity, one load serves several hives for days, and you save the mixing, the handing out and the opening of each hive.

It takes the dry pollen substitutes on the market — Apipollen, MegaBee or Ultra Bee Dry, for instance — powders formulated to be taken as they come. It is no good for a preparation that needs water, or for icing sugar: whatever does not run loose through the dispenser stays inside and ends up caking.

02 · ONE CONDITION AND TWO LIMITS

Flying weather, uneven uptake, shared point

The system has one condition and two limits. The condition: it only works with stable, mild outdoor temperatures, because the bees have to be able to fly out for the feed; in cold or rain the hopper stays full. The limits: uptake varies a lot between hives — the strong ones load up and the weak ones barely — and being a common feeding point there is a transmission risk if bees from different apiaries mix. So it does not replace a patty when the pollen shortage is severe, or when you need a particular hive to get its share.

03 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Put it out of the rain: the powder cakes with damp and stops flowing through the dispensers. And time it: it makes sense in a pollen shortage with flying weather, not in wintering. Remove supers destined for harvest before feeding, and the usual rule: do not feed during the flow if you intend to harvest that honey for sale.