Looking for Fondant?

[TooBee...]

12.5kg for starters, then a bit more if they will take it. Most of my colonies this year have had ~16kg. I try and let them finish it all and leave the top bars clear before shutting them up completely.

Do you add that 12.5kg all in one go, shortly before you close them up for winter after their last inspection (but you are still hefting later on) or do you add it in smaller amounts over a few weeks in late Autumn / very early Winter, inspecting as you go. If you add it all in one go that's a big block, about 8cm deep, covering the entire frames! So I'm guessing the latter?

 

[linoleum bonypart]

You only use fondant if the bees are starving...most put a pound or two on at a time
Takeaway containers are ideal

 

[Swarm]

Some people ONLY feed fondant.

 

[Poly Hive]

Yep that starving comment is just not so sorry to say.

PH

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Thought I'd get lynched

 

[TooBee...]

Some people ONLY feed fondant.

Yes, that's what I was wondering, a Sugar Block is far easier to prepare than Syrup, especially the 2 sugar to 1 water mix. Fondant and Sugar Blocks are easy to move around and place ontop of the frames, so why is it not used more, or even instead of syrup?

 

[SDM]

It takes more work (water) from the bees to use it.
Like everything there's pros and cons

 

[fatshark]

Since Peter Edwards original and excellent instructions have disappeared ...

http://theapiarist.org/feeding-fondant/
http://theapiarist.org/fifes-fondant-mountain/

 

[TooBee...]

Since Peter Edwards original and excellent instructions have disappeared ...

http://theapiarist.org/feeding-fondant/
http://theapiarist.org/fifes-fondant-mountain/

Thanks very much for those Links, just started reading them, and the website, they are very informative and are answering a lot of my questions

 

[Ely]

Yes, that's what I was wondering, a Sugar Block is far easier to prepare than Syrup, especially the 2 sugar to 1 water mix. Fondant and Sugar Blocks are easy to move around and place ontop of the frames, so why is it not used more, or even instead of syrup?

It would take much longer for bees to take down and store for an autumn feed. Can’t really be practical at all compared to syrup for people with many hives and short time frame. It might be easier for the beekeeper to make, travel and store but it has nothing but cons for the bees. It would be ok for an emergency feed if you didn’t have access to fondant and were desperate, better than nothing. But better to be prepared

 

[TooBee...]

Can’t really be practical at all compared to syrup for people with many hives and short time frame. It might be easier for the beekeeper to make, travel and store but it has nothing but cons for the bees.

Surely beekeepers "with many hives and short time frame" would want a bee feed which is "easier ... to make" (ref. the "short time frame") and "easier ... to ... travel and store" (Ref. the "many hives").

I am sincerely trying to understand why you say "it has nothing but cons for the bees", whenever you statement seems to be stating some extremely important pro's?

Important: I am only asking because I don't understand, I am not putting up a counter argument, as I am too ignorant on this subject

 

[colinc]

2:1 syrup is very similar to honey in water content they just move it and store it. Fondant and sugar they need to add a fair bit of water to it to use it. Syrup is quick to pour into feeder and the big farmers buy vats of it moved by forklifts. The bees can move it out of the feeders quickly and store it.
Fondant is more of an emergency feed used for the tail end when bees are flying but may not find nectar but water is abundant and they can get at it. So syrup is autumn food to store for winter as a replacement for raided/extracted honey it’s what the bees evolved to live on. Fondant is spring emergency food that some colonies won’t touch but is there in a convenient form if they need it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Poly Hive]

I know a BF who used to mix and feed 2:1 to some 500 colonies.

Just a matter of being organised.

PH

 

[fatshark]

I only feed fondant (other than spring stimulative thin syrup) and have done for 5+ years.
Works a treat.
There may well be pros and cons (there are with everything) but the pros outweigh the cons as far as I'm concerned.

I'm in Scotland. We have water

PS But I only fed fondant before I was in Scotland as well.

 

[Ely]

Yes, that's what I was wondering, a Sugar Block is far easier to prepare than Syrup, especially the 2 sugar to 1 water mix. Fondant and Sugar Blocks are easy to move around and place ontop of the frames, so why is it not used more, or even instead of syrup?

Surely beekeepers "with many hives and short time frame" would want a bee feed which is "easier ... to make" (ref. the "short time frame") and "easier ... to ... travel and store" (Ref. the "many hives").

I am sincerely trying to understand why you say "it has nothing but cons for the bees", whenever you statement seems to be stating some extremely important pro's?

Important: I am only asking because I don't understand, I am not putting up a counter argument, as I am too ignorant on this subject

It’s no good if they are taking an age to process it and store it. Syrup is taken down and stored very quickly, hence it being the number 1 choice for winter feed by commercial beekeepers and hobbyists alike. I’m not sure I see the pros in the method. If you are having to wait for the mixture to dry, I could have a bucket full of syrup on the hive before it would have dried so it doesn’t save time in that respect either. You can moisten a bag of Tate and Lyle if the bees are really that desperate for a feed.

 

[Goran]

In my " practice", I learned to give fondant as some meaning of constant flow to queen have no sharp oscilations in brooding due harsh weather - carnies ( soon will start with fondants - end of January, beginning of February). Somewhat as stimulus. In this time usually start here initial brooding. First brood is reared by the winter bees fat, but in food stores are plenty of pollen stored from last season and in warm spels in winter bees gather decent qty of pollen also and that is why I no longer or rarely use some pollen or pollen suplements..
Hope some of this is helpful..

 

[madasafish]

I find fondant is easier for beginners to use as there is far less that can go wrong.

In the case of the lady I am assisting who bought her three hives in October when none had been treated or fed##, we gave each a quick feed of 2 litres of 2:1 syrup and then she fed the weakest two fondant as the weather grew colder - and they had minimal stores. All appear to have survived - all I have had to do is treating and a bit of advice.

## and she had been on no courses!

 

[Finman]

.
IT takes from this 4 months that willows start to bloom. Bees do well with syrup stores which I fed in September. I move syrup frames from full hives to empty hives, when needed. Big job to get all sugar to consumed before next yield.
.

 

[Uncle Betty]

She over-ordered by a huge amount, by any way one might look at it, unless it was completely made of icing!

One cannot compare fondant directly to dry sugar. Fondant contains 1112% water. So Polyhive's £2.36 is likely rather underestimated. Some of us sharper ones do take note of these little discrepancies.

We certainly do...

 

[TooBee...]

It’s no good if they are taking an age to process it and store it. Syrup is taken down and stored very quickly,

Yes, I see what you're getting at.

Am I correct in understanding that a Sugar Brick takes the longest for the bees to store, and then Fondant, hence the reason Fondant would be preferred over Sugar Bricks, as the bees need to do less work in storing it?

But as you said the best would be 2:1 Sugar Syrup if speed and ease of storage is priority late in the year, before it becomes so cold that they won't take the liquid and then you must resort to the fondant or sugar bricks.