DIY Honey Bee Feeder For Top Bar Hives

Since our new honey bees don't have any food we have to supply it for them initially. Instead of buying a plastic feeder we found a nice video explaining how we could make our own bee feeder from Philip Chandler, here.

The roof of the hive is removed showing the top lid for the bee feeder that is incorporated into the top bar hive. We learned that some of the sugar sold in stores is derived from beets and the bees don't tolerate it. Pure cane sugar is what the bees want in their "bee juice", which is 1 part water to 1 part sugar by weight.

With the lid removed you can see 3 upside down jars sitting on the feeder, which is just a peice of wood with three 2 inch holes drilled in it. To make the holes I used  a drill bit for installing door knobs into doors.

Using a thumb tack I poked six or eight holes in each lid. When the jar is turned upside down in the feeder the surface tension holds the sugar water in so that it doesn't drip out all over the bees or their hive.

I used a router to give a lip to the hole so the jar fit the hole and wouldn't slide around. The follower board has two one inch holes that let the bees come into and out of the feeder area from below.