It does the job. It can hold a fair amount of sugar water, bees can get in and out. But in the end it’s just ok. I haven’t found it much better than any feeder I have used in a wood hive.
I own a fair amount of Apimaye hives. I have 10 frame hives from Apimaye and the queen defender. I sprung for the duel feeder for the 10 frames. It’s well worth it. It’s all round the best feeder I have ever used. Apimaye should drop the old design and go with something based off the duel feeder. Biggest and most aggravating feature with the standard feeder is ants. The gaps around the bee entrance area and lid are too big and ants get in the feeder by the hundreds. Like nightmare levels of ants. The bees don’t seem bothered but I hate trying to clear 500-1000 carpenter ants at inspections. It slows me down and they BITE! I also believe the ants had a hand in wiping out a small swarm I caught and housed that collapsed. I just want to attract the least amount of uninvited visitors I can. Making the gaps small, like on the duel feeder, will resolve this issue.
The hive with the standard feeder is flanked by 2 hives with the duel and the ants have to walk past the duel feeder hives, as they are all on 1 long stand. They make the trip for the easy feed. Every beekeeper wants to attract and feed as few pests as possible.
I don’t have this issue with the duel feeder. The seams are tight and pests are hard pressed to get to your bee feed. They have a solid base with this design. With a few tweaks they could apply this design to all models of hives. It’s undoubtedly better.
On the positive, I do like the split aspect of the feeder allowing you to address a divided hive individually. Great and innovative idea.
