I decided to get a gallon jug from the store and try putting holes in the top. Yeah, this never has worked right for me. I always end up making the holes too big, or cracking the lid.
This eventually stopped dripping, but it would make a huge mess if I put syrup in it. Next, I tried the gallon ziplock bag method. This didn't work well for me either, so I just put it out for the bees, ants, and anything else that came along to finish off.
I finally cut the top off the gallon jug, asked my brother to drill some holes in a block of wood (my drill stopped working long ago), and just floated the block of wood in the jug with syrup. This will be a lot simpler and I won't have to open the hive as often.
Last weekend, I moved all the plastic frames to the end of the brood nest. Next year, I'll move them all the way to the back of the hive so that they can be used for honey stores and the bees will be using all new comb for the brood. There are 12 to 13 bars/frames now that I inserted two blank bars in the middle of the brood nest. I'll probably wait until next month and then make sure all the brood is arranged at the front of the hive and the stores at the end of the hive. After that, I don't want to be messing with the bars as the bees will be setting things up for the winter. They are also doing a really good job of spreading the propolis around and sealing the hive up tight.
The four bars on the right don't have any comb on them yet. I set the feeder beneath them.
It's August now, and I should be switching from 1:1 syrup to 2:1 syrup pretty soon. I have a beekeepers association this week, so I'll check with the old-tymers to see what they think.
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