Apidea feeders

[Mellifera Crofter]

Hello all,

For the first time, I bought a couple of two-tier Apideas with top feeders.

I have two questions: each Apidea came with a white queen excluder with a couple of screws - but I can't see where it is supposed to fit!

The second question is about the top feeder. There is no baffle to cover the little dam wall - so, how do you prevent the bees from drowning? Do you make your own baffles, or do you fill the feeder with twigs and bits of wood?
Kitta

2998

PS: I think I've just now found the answer to my first question: I should pin it underneath the feeder to prevent the queen going up into the feeder. I still wonder about the baffle, though.

2999

[fatshark]

I can't help you with the Apideas as I've never used them. I always used to stop my bees from drowning in mini-nucs by using fondant. It worked well and they drew comb perfectly well. It makes moving full mini-nucs, whether with bees or food or both, much easier.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks Fatshark. I've since emailed Jon for help, and he said the same: they draw out comb well with fondant. He doesn't use the top feeders - only the internal ones filled with fondant - but he does sometimes later fill that with syrup and bits of float like correx. I now have the top feeders, and made a little baffle for one. I'll see how it goes!
Kitta

[Mellifera Crofter]

Well, how it goes so far is that the bees totally ignored the top feeder. Jon said that’s what usually happens. Perhaps when, or if, there’s a larger colony using two boxes of Apidea, they might become interested. For now, I’ve removed the top feeder.