Baker's Fondant

[Poly Hive]

Which fondant do you get from Bako Admin and what is the price as their site seems not to give costs.

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

The one to use is pure white bakers fondant,from bako,contains sugar,glucose syrup and water. price fluctuates,couple of months ago was ?7.75 at the moment ?8.25 for 12.5kg box,and a cheaper rate by the ton.this is bako south western price.

 

[Poly Hive]

Thanks Hivemaker

Costco sugar is £15 / 25kg

PH

 

[hedgerow pete]

can i ask several questions please.
1 why feed fondant instead of syrup ? syrup is cheaper for me as a winter /autum feed

2 syrup to me would not dry out over the winter as would fondant?

3 what is considered normal for the amount of winter stores 45KG total gross weight of hive brood box, would we go more or less ?

4 what is better for the bee's fondant or syrup and what are your reasons for the choice

5 where does your pollen subsitue come into the equasion feed 12kg sugar and 2 kg pollen for a total of 14 or

what are your own reason behind the choises you make

 

[BKF Admin]

You want my reason for using fondant.

ok you asked: I am lazy when it comes to feeding,I just make a couple of slits in a block of fondant and pop it on the hive,job done...

 

[victor meldrew]

Syrup requires a lot of work in order to render it suitable for storage, Autumn is notoriously humid/cool.
If syrup is fed late then the bees are unable to utilise it and it then promotes the growth of mould. It's far easier for bees to gather the small amount of water to use fondant than it is to evaporate syrup .
John

 

[hedgerow pete]

thanks that has now become another item i will need to consider between now and the autumn

 

[Hivemaker.]

Bookers sugar,?13.99 for 25kg

 

[BKF Admin]

Thats a good price Hivemaker,Is that price +VAT?
I have a Bookers card,thank you.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes,that is the total price.

 

[FROGDOGDIVER]

I recently found a fondant supplier in Northern Ireland. I had been finding it quite hard to source as there is not the same UK mainland suppliers. I paid £12.50 for a 12.5kg box.

Andrews Ingredients, 141 Dromore Road, Hillsborough, BT26 6JA 02892683030

I found the staff really helpfull and though they are a bakers suppliers they will sell to individuals and told me they regularly had local beekeepers buying one or two boxes.

 

[Jenxy]

Hi, I make and decorate a lot of cakes, and the cheapest fondant that I can buy is in small packs from Asda at about 40p a 250g pack... Green and white box, in the cake baking aisle.. Hope that helps.

 

[Hombre]

Hi Jenxy,

At ?20.00 for 12.5kg of fondant, you are paying over the odds it seems, I'm sure you can colour your own if necessary. If it is practical to buy a 12.5kg box then you would do well to search this forum and perhaps one on the darker side. Mostly talk is about the availability of a standard 12.5kg box/pack. Frogdogdiver paying ?12.50 is aparently a very good price in NI but not the cheapest price cited as being available in the UK. If my memory serves me correctly, in the last three months prices have been reported ranging from just under ?9.00 (which is exceptionally good) to around ?15 and seem fairly typical, depending where you are. The thing that surprises me just a little is the number of beekeepers that report their baker or bakery supplier as mentioning that they regularly supply a number of beekeepers. Surely a good sign.

Where abouts in the UK are you located? For me, presently it seems that Tamworth 31 miles distant is the most likely outlet, but I haven't actively started looking for a local supplier and will certainly be enquiring in bakers shops about their usage of fondant their suppliers and a price for a box.

Good shopping,
Hombre

 

[Frisbee]

Hi, I make and decorate a lot of cakes, and the cheapest fondant that I can buy is in small packs from Asda at about 40p a 250g pack... Green and white box, in the cake baking aisle.. Hope that helps.

Are you sure that this is baker's Fondant? and not roll out icing? There is a lot of difference.......

Baker's Fondant is the stuff you get on top of Belgian buns and iced buns. If you look at the recipe it's a boiled sugar product. Roll out icing is just mixed and has other ingredients including egg white which may or may not be palatable to bees.

Frisbee

 

[Jenxy]

Hi Hombre... I live in near Southampton... and Frisbee... you are dead on, I thought everyone was talking about the stiffer block fondant.. sos about that.
I know I have an awful lot to learn..

 

[BKF Admin]

Its very easy done Jenxy,you will be lucky if thats your only mistake.

this winter I lost a whole hive due to a mistake,now that's what you call a mistake.

 

[Jenxy]

If it's not too off topic... can I ask what the mistake you made was? I have so much to learn, that it would pay me to try to take on board some other peoples mistakes as well... it may save me time.

 

[Poly Hive]

Nope that's just an error.

I lost fourteen in one night, that is what you call a F*** Up.

PH

 

[Frisbee]

I lost one last year - my pony got out and knocked it over and it was a cold and rainy night. One doesn't sound many, but it was 50%.......... You'd think I would learn. Yesterday he had leaned over and nudged all the roofs over, not quite the end of the world as it wasn't too cool a night but I'm on a weeks holiday from tomorrow so he could've done it next week when I'm not there to see. I've moved the electric fence away now.

Frisbee

 

[BKF Admin]

If it's not too off topic... can I ask what the mistake you made was? I have so much to learn, that it would pay me to try to take on board some other peoples mistakes as well... it may save me time.

I left an empty super on a hive with some fondant in,problem was I put the crownboard above the super instead of underneath so they had a very big airspace to heat up all winter.

I found them all dead with heads stuck in comb and loads of food stores either side of them but they became to cold to move because they had swarmed in the summer so only covered a few frames.