I HATE feeding the bees...it's messy, it's time consuming, I worry about robbing, and I can't figure out an efficient system.
Finski, I'd love to feed an entire 16 litres of sugar water in a single feeding, but I can't yet figure out how to do it. I can feed a gallon at a time using my bottom-board feeders, but I have to refill over and over and over again.
***Can someone please tell me an efficient system for feeding 30 hives which are not all located in a single place?***
I still heat the water and mix the sugar in a big pot in my kitchen. Then I pour the sugar water into jugs or big jars or tupperware containers or whatever else we have available. Then I haul all those dripping containers in the car out to the bees. It's drudgery. Only to be followed by the same process a day or two later.
Eight of these hives are located 40 miles from my home. I keep 4 hives on our farm which is 120 miles from my home (I have access to a kitchen at the farm, so I mix the sugar water there rather than hauling it). So I need to figure out a way to feed the outlying hives without having to drive there all the time.
(I know there are tooooo many words in this post. I'm exasperated!)
I would love to hear precisely how those of you who feed sugar water to bees in out yards do it.
I'm begging here.
(Michael Bush...do you leave your granulated sugar exposed? I mean, don't your hive entrances open directly onto the mound of sugar? If so, please tell me your experience with robbing).
-Liz