Bee Feeder

thingiverse

It is spring. And that means your friendly Apis Mellifera (honeybees) may be running low on their stored honey reserves, but what to do before the flowers start blossoming? Answer: Feed them some sugar water with one of these! Features: Fits hives with 3/4 to 1/2 inch thick walls and 3/4 to 1 inch high entrance. Uses standard canning jar for the container. Drip catcher "pond" inside for bees to drink from. Second pond area to keep sticky out of the hive. External overflow drain hole. Unlike all the versions I've seen in the store, this actually hooks into the frame so it won't fall out. Also unlike store versions, the threads are part of the plastic so that the jar can't be bumped out. Three entrance/exit tunnels with inner roundabout make it printable without support material. IMPORTANT: This currently has a design flaw in that I forgot to account for the height of the canning jar for attachment. What that means is until I update the size you'll have to use a jar shorter than a pint. If that's ok with you, go ahead and print. If not, you may want to watch this 'thing' for the pint-compatible version to be released. Instructions I printed from PLA with 10% infill and 3 shells (to give strength to threads). I tried to design this so that you wouldn't need supports. I didn't use any, but there were a lot of "hangies". I guess it all depends whether you'd rather cut off those or cut off the support material. Either way you'll need a chisel or sharp screwdriver to clean the inside. Also, my printer filled in the holes so you may need to poke them back out with a hot dental pick or needle.