Layens top feeder 1,5L

01 · WHY THEY DO NOT DROWN

A small liquid surface with a grid over it

It is the perennial complaint about tray feeders: however many corks, sticks or floats you throw in, some bee ends up in the syrup. Here two things work at once. The tray is wide and shallow, so the film of liquid is thin, and over it goes a slotted grid that cuts the open surface down to slots where the bee drinks standing rather than swimming. It is not magic: the bee never has liquid above and below her at the same time.

02 · THE GRID IS THE KEY PART

Set it before you pour and check it afterwards

The whole design depends on the grid sitting properly seated or properly afloat. Put it in before the syrup and — this is the point — check it after filling: if it has tipped or ridden up on one edge, it leaves a stretch of open liquid, and that is where they drown. Always work with the hive level: on a tilted hive the syrup gathers at one end, the grid floats at one side and sits dry at the other. And although the system cuts the risk a long way, it does not replace looking into the feeder when you open up.

03 · WHEN THEY USE IT AND WHEN NOT

A feeder does not create the need to eat

At 1.5 litres this is a feeder for frequent small doses, not for a winter load: it suits feeding a couple of times a week to growing nucs or colonies on the mend, and letting you read consumption at a glance without touching frames. That said: if the colony has stores, or it is cold and the cluster is tight below, they may not come up for the syrup — the feeder is not failing, they simply do not need it. Syrup gets taken when there is demand and it is close to the cluster.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is dimensioned for Layens, and that is where the fit is guaranteed. In other formats some beekeepers use it laid along the frames, provided the lid has no central bar taking up the space: the external size is 420 × 155 × 32 mm, so compare it with your own opening before ordering. Food-grade polypropylene tray, high-impact polystyrene grid.