Division frame feeder DADANT US 4 kg

01 · THE CHANNEL THAT FILLS FROM BELOW

Refill without clearing the bees out

Its signature is a central channel you pour the syrup into: the reservoir fills from the bottom up, so it does not drown the bees already drinking. It is one of the few systems that fill this way — ANEL invented it in the seventies and it earned an APIMONDIA silver medal. It includes two floats and ribbed inner walls so the bees climb up and down without slipping, which means there is no need to clear the bees out to refill.

02 · CLOSE THE WINDOW WHEN YOU FINISH

The move between feeding and drowning

There is one thing you cannot forget with this feeder: close the channel window when you finish filling. Left open, the bees get in through it and drown. It is not a finishing detail, it is the move that separates a feeder that works from a tray of casualties, and it costs two seconds per hive.

03 · DADANT US, NOT BLATT

One centimetre decides whether it fits

This is the Dadant US version, 48 cm top bar. If your hive is Dadant Blatt — 47 cm, the standard in France and Italy — this one will be too long: the Blatt version exists for that. And it does not sit well if the brood chamber uses frame spacers: check before ordering whether your frames run with castellated rails or fixed spacers.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

By keeping the syrup warm it works very well for stimulative feeding at build-up, and the small filling window lowers the robbing risk. Out of the feeding season it has a second use: set to one side, it acts as a lateral division board to shrink the space of a small colony and help it hold heat. It cleans quickly — scrape it and rinse with hot water under pressure, up to 60 °C, with a little bleach between seasons. And the usual rule: do not feed during the flow if you intend to harvest that honey for sale.