Cost of sugar or fondant 2022

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Joined
Jul 3, 2010
Messages
301
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76
Location
Co Antrim
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3
Last year I used fondant rather than sugar syrup for over wintering bees. It was just handier than preparing syrup I can't remember the price exactly but it wasn't horrendous.
I was going to do the same this year but the cost has arisen so much that I will just use sugar and make up 2:1 syrup. I checked but not being sold in the sale.
Anyone know of a good local sugar supply or will I just buy it form local supermarkets?
 
Last year I used fondant rather than sugar syrup for over wintering bees. It was just handier than preparing syrup I can't remember the price exactly but it wasn't horrendous.
I was going to do the same this year but the cost has arisen so much that I will just use sugar and make up 2:1 syrup. I checked but not being sold in the sale.
Anyone know of a good local sugar supply or will I just buy it form local supermarkets?
This is where I got mine from, don't use enough to get it cheaper like some on here. Get enough and there's free delivery. I hope I'm ok for the next two years.

https://hbingredients.co.uk/products/s-fonsw12-5
 
I use Invertbee ... bought in bulk via a local beefarmer £16 for 14Kg...
That's about 3 times the cost of mixing 2-1 syrup....... if you can be bothered 😀
 
Last year I used fondant rather than sugar syrup for over wintering bees. It was just handier than preparing syrup I can't remember the price exactly but it wasn't horrendous.
I was going to do the same this year but the cost has arisen so much that I will just use sugar and make up 2:1 syrup. I checked but not being sold in the sale.
Anyone know of a good local sugar supply or will I just buy it form local supermarkets?
Even buying in bulk it's not much cheaper than supermarket. Tesco 65p - 1/2 tonne delivered to my door 63p!
 
That's about 3 times the cost of mixing 2-1 syrup....... if you can be bothered 😀
It's about time, convenience and the fact that I feed late when the Ivy is flowing and they seem to take it down better than 2:1 that late in the year ... and of course I'm not a proper beekeeper ! If I had a lot of hives the savings would make more sense and mixing my own would be more likely.
 
Even buying in bulk it's not much cheaper than supermarket. Tesco 65p - 1/2 tonne delivered to my door 63p!
Blimey Neil .... I'm just thinking what a job mixing up HALF A TON of sugar to 2:1 is going to be....Finnie has an old style washing top loading washing machine ... what's your method ?
 
Blimey Neil .... I'm just thinking what a job mixing up HALF A TON of sugar to 2:1 is going to be....Finnie has an old style washing top loading washing machine ... what's your method ?
I put 1/2 bag in a 25ltr bucket add 8ltrs of warm water and whisk with a paint stirrer on a drill. i have 4 set up ata time and walk from 1 bucket to the next stirring until the sugar is dissolved. I then decant into drums. I normally do about a 100kg at a time.
I'm doing it for 2 teaching apiaries this year.

I was going to do it in a 100lt tank and a pump but not got around to it yet!
 
I tried them but they don't ship to N Ireland unfortunately.

Susan if you find any that do can you let me know? Very frustrating when nowhere ships here or adds a massive surcharge.
 
Blimey Neil .... I'm just thinking what a job mixing up HALF A TON of sugar to 2:1 is going to be....Finnie has an old style washing top loading washing machine ... what's your method ?
150kg in a 200l tank. Very hot tap water and mix with a shovel. Takes about 30 mins in total. I relax with a cup of tea while doing it, not port.
Around 2 ton of sugar last year
 
150kg in a 200l tank. Very hot tap water and mix with a shovel. Takes about 30 mins in total. I relax with a cup of tea while doing it, not port.
Around 2 ton of sugar last year
Get yourself a plasterers mixer or any large drill plenty of pinched ones going cheap at car boots.😳Erbauer EPM1600 1600W Electric Paddle Mixer 220-240V
There’s plenty of others at various prices. Some models have extensions for the mixer paddle as well. If your doing it seriously a visit to a dry lining supplier would be advised.
 
Get yourself a plasterers mixer or any large drill plenty of pinched ones going cheap at car boots.😳Erbauer EPM1600 1600W Electric Paddle Mixer 220-240V
There’s plenty of others at various prices. Some models have extensions for the mixer paddle as well. If your doing it seriously a visit to a dry lining supplier would be advised.
Got one of those and a sump pump. Shovel works best, though I used to do a lot of kayaking so maybe it's in the technique 🤣
 
I’m tempted by the fondant route rather than syrup but am nervous about feeding that instead of syrup which the bees bring down into the brood nest …

Also you can’t thymolise fondant

Bulk bags - Bookers have 2 x 25kg for £28 (it used to be 2 for £22 in 2019) offer on until September.

Bulk sugar supplier called me this week with an ‘offer’ of expiring fondant…it was hardly a bargain…and the pre mixed syrup was pricey too. They are expecting sugar prices to rise by 30% from October due to processing costs to make sugar increasing….
 
Just a word of caution on buying bulk from supermarkets, I recently had a "dust-off" with Aldi over buying bulk qtys. The checkout lady, when I got to the till, insisted I was buying in bulk which, is against company policy, so I asked her to explain what the company policy was and what constituted "bulk" on several occasions. She couldn't explain only saying I should leave some for other customers. Which I did. She also said buying in this now mystical definition of "bulk" was screwing up her company figures!

I decided to take it up with Head office. This took weeks to try and bottom out and essentially, once they worked out I was not going away, they ran out the same incomprehensible drivel on their "bulk purchase Policy". They refused to give me a definition of "bulk" and to keep it simple for them, I said look, 6 boxes of X product on the shelf, I buy 4. Does that constitute "Bulk"? or if there is 3 boxes of X on the shelf I buy 2 cos that's what I need, is that bulk and you will refuse to sell me my requirements? Silence!

Just to consolidate the point I did ask if I was to purchase 3 boxes of the 6 on the shelf, go thro the checkout, put said boxes in car and then re-enter the store and purchase the remaining 3 boxes does that constitute "Bulk"??

No answer. Aldi really has gone down in my expectations and made themselves look complete fools in fact I haven't been back since.

So what, in times of high inflation, food shortages and a mystical bulk buy policy by Aldi, that cannot be defined even by the company themselves, means you be careful folks where you buy your sugar from for the coming winter. You just might get to the checkout and be told you cant buy it as your purchase could be considered as bulk buying which, they have this mystical policy for. But they can't tell you what it is nor will they help you understand what it is.
 
Your local 'cash and carry' might do you better bulk deals than the supermarkets. They might also stock fondant or sugar paste (read the ingredients before you buy though). Bako is the brand we know over here.

My local Association in West Wales always used to get bags of sugar from their local Farm Foods who at the time were more than happy for you to buy in bulk to the extent of giving you a sheet of vouchers with greater discounts the more you bought.

You might also look on eBay, a lot of the suppliers there include NI in the UK so will ship although expect a bit of an increase in the postal rate. I checked a few using a postcode of BT1 1AA and there weren't too larger increases.
 
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