Making fondant out of honey

[DomB]

Hi,

I have an amount of honey which is not really sellable so I was looking to make it into a winter feed.

I've seen recipes for mixing icing sugar into the honey to make a fondant. It pretty much says to just add the sugar until the mixture becomes the desired texture.

Has anyone any thoughts / advice on doing this? Would I then just place the fondant pattie on to the frames above where where the bees have grouped and leave it there for Winter?

Thanks very much

 

[bees4u]

Hi,

I have an amount of honey which is not really sellable so I was looking to make it into a winter feed.

I've seen recipes for mixing icing sugar into the honey to make a fondant. It pretty much says to just add the sugar until the mixture becomes the desired texture.

Has anyone any thoughts / advice on doing this? Would I then just place the fondant pattie on to the frames above where where the bees have grouped and leave it there for Winter?

Thanks very much

Hi, I've never mixed icing sugar with honey before, but if you do, make sure it's very firm as the heat from the bees will soften it and it could make quite a mess. Once you have a firm dough put cling film around it and place on the cluster if they need it, make a small hole so the bees can get at it.

 

[DomB]

Thanks very much.I'll give it a go

 

[Rosti]

without a boil stage you wont combine the 20% ish water from the honey to the sugar, will improve physical stability, at aw80+ microbiological stability would still be fine of course

Would suggest you save the honey for dilution and spring stimulation feed use or for combination with pollen / pollen substitute into patties for spring build up.

 

[DomB]

Thanks Rosti. I suppose I could just give them the honey as it is.

 

[bees4u]

Thanks Rosti. I suppose I could just give them the honey as it is.

Not a good idea, the first was best, do you think they are short of food?

 

[sugarbush]

What makes this honey not consumable by humans? The answer may effect how you should use it on your hives.

 

[DomB]

@bees4u - We usually leave each hive with what sums up to about a framesworth of honey for the winter (all the uncapped stuff etc) but this time we've taken just about the whole lot. Is there any reason not to feed the bees (other than the cost and effort of doing so)?

@Sugarbush - it's was gained from the mashed bits of wax and cappings etc and just looks very dark. TBH it also took us some time to sort out so I suspect it's taken on a fair amount of moisture from the air. We have about 4lbs of it.

So I mixed in some icing sugar, simmered it all down and it's now a soft toffee-like substance. I've wrapped it in clingfilm and rolled it into a slab and it looks suitable for putting on the hives. I'll cut some slices in the clingfilm and put it above the cluster..

 

[bees4u]

@bees4u - We usually leave each hive with what sums up to about a framesworth of honey for the winter (all the uncapped stuff etc) but this time we've taken just about the whole lot. Is there any reason not to feed the bees (other than the cost and effort of doing so)?


Firstly, you should feed the bees by the end of September so that you can hardly lift the hive, they should have a least 45lbs of food to survive a normal winter. Even though I'm a bee farmer, I never take honey from the brood box, that is theirs. If your hive has only got one frame of capped honey, I would be very worried. I would get an eke on it or empty super and give them a huge slab of fondant & keep an eye on them all winter now. If you work out that each frame is about 5lbs when full (National) then you'll see that you need at least 8 full frames of food for the winter. It's not about cost either, it's about keeping them alive. Good luck regards Jean

 

[RoofTops]

Adding icing sugar to honey is the well known (or so I thought) recipe for making what is called Queen Candy. It is called this because it is used for sealing the end of queen introduction cages.

It is easy enough to make but you need to make it very thick otherwise when used in a queen cage it can fall out after a while as gravity will cause it to slowly move downwards.

I have used it only once as a fondant in some Apideas and as a method for drowning bees it was very effective. The problem was the candy attracts moisture and become more fluid over time, eventually ending up like quick sand.

I would not recommend heating the honey to any sort of high temperature (say 80C+) as this will raise the HMF value and potentially make it poisonous to bees if the level rose too high.

Edit: Just noticied you have already boiled down the honey. You don't know what the HMF levels are so I strongly urge caution and keep it away from your bees. I recommend eating it yourself.

 

[DomB]

Rooftop; thanks so much! I didn't know about the HMF level. I've already boiled it down so I guess I've about stuffed it now! d'oh!

 

[DomB]

Firstly, you should feed the bees by the end of September so that you can hardly lift the hive, they should have a least 45lbs of food to survive a normal winter. Even though I'm a bee farmer, I never take honey from the brood box, that is theirs. If your hive has only got one frame of capped honey, I would be very worried. I would get an eke on it or empty super and give them a huge slab of fondant & keep an eye on them all winter now. If you work out that each frame is about 5lbs when full (National) then you'll see that you need at least 8 full frames of food for the winter. It's not about cost either, it's about keeping them alive. Good luck regards Jean

Thanks bees4u; we haven't taken anything from their brood chamber.