- Joined
- Mar 30, 2011
- Messages
- 36,242
- Reaction score
- 16,195
- Location
- Glanaman,Carmarthenshire,Wales
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- Too many - but not nearly enough
Been leafing through my first edition (1904) copy of Digges' 'the Irish Bee Guide' - which then was subsequently changed to the Practical Bee Guide to allay the bile of the average beekeeping retired colonel; and happened upon the chapter on feeding fondant:
And remembering that in those days there were no crown boards.....or plastic takeaway cartons - or celotex!!:Experience shows that stocks, no matter how well supplied with food below, winter better when they have a cake of candy on top of the frames. The bees use the candy first
Then some trumpet in the BBKA comes along with matchsticks and 'ventilation' and makes it the gospel!!!A neater plan for supplying the candy, and one that will repay the little extra trouble, where only a few hives have to be dealt with, may be adopted as follows. Procure for each hive a small shallow box of wood, or cardboard; remove the lid and cut, in the bottom a hole to correspond with the hole in the sheet that is on the frames. Put a piece of newspaper over the hole in the bottom of the box and fill up with candy. Now, set an empty section crate on the sheet that covers the frames; pull the paper off the candy; and set the box on the sheet, so that the bees shall have access to the candy right over the cluster. Place a piece of glass on the box. Fill up the crate with warm stuff, such as tailor's cuttings, cork dust, or chaff; pack all round it with with cloth or newspaper, then set the usual quilts on top. Thus there will be no escape of heat; the candy will be in the warmest part of the hive; and the glass will enable you to see when a further supply of food becomes neccessary.