This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website.
PH.
Diagonal Miller Feeder National Hive
This type of feeder was designed and developed by a man of that name. I presume it was the Miller that was the originator of various other beekeeping manipulations, but I am not sure of this, nor do I know the date. It is a square box and consists of a central feeding station that is arranged right across the box, which results in the feed volume being divided into two portions which can be used independently or both together.
In most cases the feeding station has a cover to keep bees out of the main feed volumes, but I have a modified type of clearer board that can be used over the top of Miller feeders, when preparing bee colonies for the heather.
The drawings below show various aspects of the device… It is essentially a tray with a central slot (12 mm) for bee access, flanked by a pair of sealed risers that the bees can climb over and two more baffles, that are fitted flush with the top, outside of these. Thus allowing feed to flow underneath. In some designs the outer baffles slide into 3 mm deep slots and rest on 3 mm spacing pegs. Generally all parts are strongly glued and screwed so that they remain water tight when in use. The risers are rebated into the front and back by 3 mm. The central slot is separated into two regions and there are two distinct reasons for this, the first is strength and the second is that with a 9 mm strip across the centre, the feeder can be placed over two 5 frame nucs sitting side by side. The bees mix quite amicably in the feeding station, but the strip stops the non-feeding bees from switching nucs.
National Miller Feeder
The rim on the underside is required for use with standard National equipment, but if top bee space is being used you will need to modify the base of the tray to be similar to that found on the (as yet incomplete) page that shows the Rational Bro. Adam feeder.
Cutting list for parts
I do like big top feeders for autumn work.
PH