TOP BAR HIVE PLASTIC TOP FEEDER
I recently finished building five tbh, one for my son and four for me. I will be starting with two packages of bees in April.
I bought five of the following plastic top feeders from Brushy Mountain
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Plastic-10-Frame-Hive-Top-Feeder/productinfo/423/ that I intend to jury-rig with a 2x4 frame with a cover on the outside top. To provide for the bees' entrance, there will be a separate three-inch-wide top bar w/follower board that has a half-inch wide x 10-inch ong hole in the extra 1 1/2-inch side of the follower board. Of course the bees will only use one of the two entrances on the feeder. I will be able to feed two gallons of sugar water at a time using this. I haven't checked it out yet, but I might be able to change one of the ends so that it can be used as an access for candy, fondue, or plain sugar.
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UPS delivered the five top feeders about an hour ago. This is going to be MUCH easier than what I thought it would be. The measurements are almost perfect for my tbh.
What I will consider the LENGTH is 19 3/4 inches, but of course that would be the WIDTH if it were sitting on a regular hive. That 19 3/4 inches include a 1" edge on each end. Inside those two edges is a length of 17 3/4 inches with two white, plastic covers over the "stairs" that the bees walk down to access the honey in the 14 1/8" X 17 3/4" well for sugar water. The well is 2" high.
What I will consider the WIDTH 16 1/4" including the two 3/4" edges, but of course that would be the LENGTH on a regular hive. Inside the two 3/4" edges is the 14 1/8 width of the well. I could not have asked for a much better size for my width; it will fit my tbh almost perfectly, and I can make the frame for top with 3/4" X 3" wood to hold up the cover instead of 2" X 4" wood as I said in the post above.
One last thing about the post above where I said, "I haven't checked it out yet, but I might be able to change one of the ends so that it can be used as an access for candy, fondue, or plain sugar"; that will be no problem whatsoever; all I'll have to do is lift off one of the white-plastic-end covers so that the bees can just walk down the steps to get to the candy, fondue, or plain sugar.
As you've probably surmised... I'm a happy camper right now.
BTW Those white-plastic ends are only the top and front to cover the wide tunnel that the bees come up to be able to go down the stairs to the top level of the sugar water behind and in front of the white plastic piece.
ETA Rather than making the 3" wide follow board as described above, I'm just going to use my regular follow board(s) and a 1 1/2" top bar in which I'll cut the 1/2" X 10" hole to put under the feeder's tunnel to the sugar water/white-plastic end.