In an emergency, anything will do. It's all better than starving. The basic ingredient of any commercial icing is pulverised sugar (sucrose). That's exactly the same as the bagged sugar, but mechanically ground to a small crystal size. Ideally the fewer additions the better. "Bakers' fondant" is pulverised sugar plus glucose syrup (glucose and water) so it stays mobile as a paste. As previous posters and in various other threads have said it's used by bakers to ice buns so it's in 12.5Kg boxes from bakers' suppliers, some local bakers will sell a box to you if you ask nicely.
There are commercial "bee food" versions which are pretty much the same thing, they are not demonstrably better for bees than the bakers' version whatever the impression they try to give on the pack. The main difference is convenience because they are packed in 2.5Kg (or other) flat packs so there's no unwrapping or dividing up. The price varies by supplier but is invariably more than the bakers' boxes.
There are some who make their own by boiling up sugar and glucose.
There is a video on this site That's good, but takes some time and is only a marginal saving over baker's fondant depending how much you buy glucose syrup for. There are older recipes, even in otherwise well regarded books, which include acid usually as vinegar, cream of tartar or lemon juice. They are using the acid to hydrolyse the sucrose. Best avoided because in the presence of acid and heat the sugars can break down to HMF which is bad for bees and in the kitchen you have no way of measuring that precisely.
Supermarket ready to use icing has additives to make it workable, one supermarket version lists
Sugar,Glucose Syrup ,Palm Oil ,Humectant (Glycerine) ,Stabilisers (Tragacanth, Cellulose) ,Modified Tapioca Starch ,Acidity regulators (Sodium Acetate, Acetic Acid) ,Flavouring
The other ingredients are in small proportions and probably harmless, but unnecessary and a very expensive way of buying sugar at around 4 quid for half a kilo. Boxed, dry icing sugar has anti caking agent added, a frequently seen brand lists
Iced Sugar (98.5%),Anti Caking Agent E341
E341 is calcium phosphate. Again, probably harmless but only there to extend the shelf life of the dry product and expensive at double the price of straight sugar.
An alternative, and used by many beekeepers of long standing is sugar. Just as it comes in 1 Kg packs. Tear a hole in the side, dunk the pack in water for a couple of seconds and put the torn bit over a hole in the usual crown/feeding/escape board. The advantage of fondant, especially if most of the surface is still wrapped in polythene is that it doesn't go hard as quickly. But if sugar is what you have to hand and the bees are starving, wet sugar is quick and available anywhere.
sorry just me getting carried away .........again
