Frame feeder for syrup 3,2kg

01 · FEEDING FROM INSIDE

Less robbing than an exposed feed

The advantage of this format is not the capacity, it is where the syrup sits. Hanging like any other frame, the feed stays inside the volume the bees occupy: there is no opening from above to refill and no feeder to add over the crown board, and above all it cuts down robbing compared with any exposed feed — a spill outside or a communal feeder stirs up the whole apiary, and this does not. Its lugs rest on the runners just as a frame's do, so it needs a free position and a stable seat before you fill it.

02 · NO FLOAT: PUT SOMETHING IN

The ribs help, but they are not enough

Worth saying without dressing it up, because it is what users comment on most: it has no float and no grid. The ribbed inner walls give grip and help the bees climb, but they do not by themselves prevent drowning, especially in the first days while the colony learns to use it. The fix is a management one and takes a minute: put something in they can climb or land on — straw, cork, clean twigs or a piece of mesh. And if you would rather not think about it, the catalogue has frame feeders that come with a float already.

03 · MEASURE THE GAP BEFORE ORDERING

38 mm thick, and the runners decide

The feeder takes up 38 mm, more than a normal frame, and that is where most set-ups fail. If your hive has castellated runners or fixed spacers, check they leave that gap clear and that the lugs seat properly: with a spacer strip in the way it simply will not go in. It is a thirty-second check with a frame in hand, and it saves finding out with the feeder already full of syrup.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is supplied empty and takes 3.2 kg of syrup, in Langstroth and Dadant. Fill it with the hive already open and without spilling outside: spilt syrup is what starts robbing. And one calendar rule not to skip — do not feed during a flow destined for harvest, because the syrup ends up in the combs you are going to extract.