Fondant top up query

[Swarm]

Sounds like a lot of fun.
As Drex above, nothing wrong with belt and braces in the first years but you will get to know your bees and they will show you what they need.
People say not to keep bees by the calendar but it certainly helps at times
I decide when the supers come off, end of August. I could play a waiting game on late flows but my bees mean more to me than honey and mine normally take a brood break soon after the main flow. If they are on the Balsam come September it's theirs, I'm more concerned with treatments. They are usually pounding the Ivy by the time I feed, any unfinished supers have been nadired and each hive gets three half gallon feeds of invert, by which point they are a reasonable weight. I don't usually feed fondant unless I have to due to Winters that won't end like 2012 or the beast from the east in 2018 but even then, only a kilo per hive.

 

[The Poot]

Seeing as how i asked the question about fondant in the first instance and i had no idea it would open a can of worms i think i should elaborate a bit more.
As i said this is my second year and although i have a great mentors they are miles away from where i live and as i dont want to be a nuiscance its not right if i am ringing up everytime i have a bit of a problem. Last year i started with three poly hives .One was brood and half one was in paynes nuc extended to take eight frames with the extensions on top and the other was poly national DB i was getting confidence and doing ok.I now know that mixed hives are not the way for me. Lesson learnt.
Anyway then the swarming started and i was not experienced enough to tackle it as it should have been done. So i ended up with eight hives and two nucs and a couple of swarms . To say i was getting confused was an understatement.
So i knew i had to feed and i did feed syrup ,but again with limited experience i did not want to feed too much and not leave any room. Hence the fondant .
Also because the swarming was happening fast ,i didnt have enough boxes and had to cobble up some to accomodate the increasing population. Then by autumn i had several light hives and before i could make up my mind wether to combine some or not . Well the weather was closing in and i thought just put fondant on and hope for the best. I place 2/3 kg blocks wrapped in cling film (yes i now know not to do that again) on the QX i did weigh them and am doing this every couple of weeks and the weight doesent vary much. Sorry for the long winded story.

Another lesson learned then? Every question on here opens a can of worms....

 

[Erichalfbee]

Another lesson learned then? Every question on here opens a can of worms....

Those are caterpillars

 

[The Poot]

Those are caterpillars

Closest thing I could find. I reckon I get a gold star for trying.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I thought they were baby dragons - during their wingless stage

 

[Bubbs]

I was told to mix up a box of icing sugar into a thick paste and feed instead of fondant. Has anyone done that? Is it recommended?

 

[Murox]

Icing sugar has additives like tricalcium phosphate or starch to help prevent it going hard. So no its not recommended as a feed. Ordinary granulated sugar is just glucose and fructose, feed that.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was told to mix up a box of icing sugar into a thick paste and feed instead of fondant. Has anyone done that? Is it recommended?

You can do that if you make your own icing sugar

 

[Bubbs]

You can do that if you make your own icing sugar

 

[Bubbs]

Thanks I'll get fondant

 

[Amari]

Icing sugar has additives like tricalcium phosphate or starch to help prevent it going hard. So no its not recommended as a feed. Ordinary granulated sugar is just glucose and fructose, feed that.

To be nerdy: granulated sugar is sucrose, a disaccharide. Just the same as humans, the bees add the enzyme invertase which splits the disacc into two monosaccharides: glucose and fructose. 'Invert syrup' fed in the autumn is partially converted.

 

[Belgianbeekeeper]

Looking for advice on how to top up the existing fondant in my poly hives. Being only into my second full year im afraid that last autumn going into winter. i had some very light hives i should have fed more syrup. and or possibly combined a couple of colonies .With my limited knowledge i thought they would be ok . i had quite a lot of fondant and i thought i would just put a block on each excluder and directly on top of the frames. This worked the previous year.I did a quick check a couple weeks back on a rare mild day and they are taking the fondant although not much and it has gone rock hard.
It is now also stuck to the frames and excluder with depressions and voids where they have taken it from.I would like to remove and replace with newwer stuff and make sure it is on the frame and no gaps .If you follow what i mean. So they can get at it easier. I dont really want to open them up but im thinking this will give them a better chance to get on the fondant. Will i be ok just to use a small ammount of smoke as i dont wish to damage any that are present feeding .Or just try and prize the fondant off ,The cluster is under the rock hard suff. I dont want to spend too much time chilling them so need to do whatever quickly. Apologies if this sounds like a silly question. Thank you

I've partially answered some of your questions in another sticky,maibe you can find it,i'm hopeless in the maze of forums.Few quick things tho,we never leave dough(Fondant) nore sugarfluid in the hive during winter.We give them as much fondant they can handle and put away from mid august until end first week of september,in october the hives getting weighted and fluid inverted sugar+ added enzymes feeded till the weight is right,done,enough weight=enough food in the frames to make it through winter.Small colonies get either poor frames taken out and replaced by fillerframes left and right or placed in a smaller hive all together,all well in time before cold sets in.The fondant/dough we make in semi professional dough kneader,and consist out of starchfree powedered sugar and leftover winterfood we took out in early spring,kept aside and swung for this purpose,water or bit more dry sugar is added dropwise till the structure is to our liking,malleable but not sticky/moist.Also important reducing the risk of a colonie colapsing our last honeyharvest is 3th week of july,than we had 3 rounds of harvest what is plenty.