Communal Feeding Stations

A feeding station is an open feed or water point placed in or near the apiary and used by many colonies at once; giving feed in the open is called open feeding. A clean water station is beneficial for the apiary; open feeding with syrup, honey or honey residues, on the other hand, starts robbing, carries diseases between hives and hands the feed to the strongest colony. This page explains which stations are safe and which are risky.

What is a feeding station?

With in-hive feeding, each colony feeds from its own feeder. At a feeding station, however, the feed or water sits in the open at a single point, and all the bees within flying range, including those from neighbouring apiaries, come to it. The stations encountered in practice are:

• Water station (water point): A container or set-up that supplies the apiary with clean water.
• Open syrup station: Sugar water left in the open in troughs, barrels or large containers.
• Open dry protein station: Dry pollen substitute given in the open in a container protected from rain.
• Open cleaning-out: Letting bees clean out supers, extractor containers, cappings or combs from dead hives in the open after the harvest.

The risks of these four practices are very different. A water station is recommended; open syrup and open cleaning-out are not recommended; a dry protein station can be used only under limited conditions and with care.

Why is open feeding risky?

It starts robbing

Syrup in the open sparks a foraging frenzy in bees when there is no flow in the field. When the source runs out, the same bees start looking for food in weak hives. This is how robbing (plundering) starts, and within a few days it can empty a weak colony completely.

It carries diseases between hives

When bees from hundreds of colonies share the same feeding point, they also share disease agents. Open feeding with honey and honey residues is especially dangerous: honey can carry viable American foulbrood (AFB) spores for years, and this disease is notifiable. Because bees go back and forth between hives during robbing, Varroa destructor mites and viruses are also carried from colony to colony.

It gives the feed to the wrong colony

The strongest colonies carry away the most feed from an open station. The feed does not reach the weak colony, split or swarm that needs it most. What is more, you cannot know how much feed each colony has taken; winter stores cannot be calculated.

Other problems

• Neighbouring apiaries: Bees of other beekeepers within flying range come too; both feed and disease are exchanged.
• Hornets: Sugary feed draws hornets and wasps to the apiary.
• Drowning and fermentation: Open troughs quickly become dirty and sour; thousands of bees can drown.
• Problems with neighbours: Excited bees head for nearby houses, fountains and market stalls.

How do you recognise robbing?

• Fighting at the entrance: Fights between guard bees and strange bees; bees locked together on the ground.
• Zigzag flight: Robber bees fly back and forth in front of the entrance, trying to get past the guards.
• Torn cappings: Irregularly opened honey cells inside the hive and wax crumbs on the floor.
• Traffic at unusual times: Heavy coming and going at a weak hive late in the evening, when the air has cooled.
• Sudden loss of weight: The hive feels noticeably lighter within a few days when lifted.

What should you do if robbing has started?

1. Remove open feed immediately: Collect all sugary containers, spilled syrup and honey residues in the apiary.
2. Reduce the entrances: Especially narrow the entrance of the hive under attack so that only one or two bees can pass.
3. Do not open the hives: Every inspection while robbing is going on spreads the scent and escalates the attack.
4. Close or move the hive if necessary: A colony under heavy attack can be closed up, with ventilation provided, or taken to a place outside flying range.
5. Remove the cause: Find the cause, such as open feeding, a leaking feeder or supers left in the open; otherwise robbing will start again.

The water station: the recommended station

Bees need water to feed brood, cool the hive and dissolve the sugar in fondant; on hot days a colony carries a significant amount of water. If there is no clean water nearby, bees head for neighbours' fountains, pools and pet bowls. That is why setting up a water station in the apiary is recommended. For a good water station:

• Landing surface: Stones, gravel, moss, floating wood or pieces of cork; bees should be able to drink without falling into the water.
• Cleanliness: The water is refreshed regularly and algae and mud build-up are cleaned out. Stagnant, dirty water can carry disease.
• Early set-up: Bees choose their water source in spring and get used to it. If you set up the station at the start of the season, the bees will not turn to neighbouring sources.
• Location: A sunny spot sheltered from the wind, close to the hives but not directly in front of the entrances.
• Plain water: No sugar, honey or medicine is added to the water point. A sugar-water station means open feeding.

Can a dry protein station be used?

Some large operations give dry pollen substitute in the open, in containers protected from rain, when there is a pollen dearth in the field. Dry powder does not create as much robbing excitement as syrup; but the other problems of open feeding remain: the feed goes to the strongest colonies, feed that gets damp goes mouldy, and bees come from neighbouring apiaries. If this method is to be used:

• use only a pollen-free substitute prepared for bees; real pollen of unknown origin is never given in the open,
• set up the station some distance from the hives, protected from rain and damp,
• put out small amounts of feed and throw away feed that gets wet or clumps,
• support weak colonies separately, inside the hive, with pollen patties.

In small and medium-sized apiaries, the safest way is to give protein as pollen patties inside the hive. Details are on the Pollen Feeding page.

Comparison of feeding station types

How do you get supers cleaned out after the harvest?

Leaving extracted supers out in the apiary for the bees to clean is a common but risky habit. The safer way is to put the wet supers, in the late afternoon, on top of the crown board of your own hives or inside an empty box under the roof. That way only that colony cleans the super, and the scent does not spread outside. The cleaned supers are taken off a few days later and stored protected against wax moth. Supers from a colony suspected of disease are not given to another colony.