Syrup and Contact Feeders

So, the home made contact feeder (ice cream tub with holes in the lid) I placed on Hive2 leaked sugar syrup down through the hive. The syrup hadn't leaked out of the holes but out of the edge of the lid. Quite annoying, I'd tested it with water prior to using it and it'd been fine. Anyway I removed it from the hive and put in place some smaller feeders I'd made from glass jars with holes punched through the lids. They worked fine although I felt they were a little small. I later upgraded these for large coffee jars with holes drilled into their plastic lids -tested with water and red food dye in case of drips. Later decided to bite the bullet, stop being a cheapskate and buy some proper contact feeders so I bought two large white bucket type feeders from some guy on eBay and haven't really looked back.

However on one occassion I had my feeder full of 1:1 syrup and Vita Feed Gold, popped the lid on walked away from the hive and tured it upside down and off fell the lid. I guess I hadn't clicked it on properly. I now have a big patch of dead grass to show for my troubles.

I also have an Ashforth feeder which came with the hive. I've scorched it and painted it but haven't used it yet. I'm going to leave it to cure for a few weeks before I put liquid into it. It's not got a baffle to keep bees out of the reserviour so I'm thinking I'll have to make a float for that at some point.