MuswellMetro
Queen Bee
Just quick survey to see when most of you add fondant or damp granulated sugar
The options are fairly good, but,...
1) I rarely need to add fondant. A sensible approach to over-wintering!
2) September - it is likely taken down and stored, so not really what the thread is about
?
3) Beekeeping is not something to be done around set dates!
4) Pointless for those that do not do oxalic.
5) and 6) Always when required; who knows when that is?
7) too late for fondant - they will be brooding.
8) They are always getting lighter, every time I might heft - unless the colony is dead!
9) The only sensible answer in my book - otherwise expressed as 'when they need it', although if they were to be 'light' in, say, January there is little point in waiting any longer as it is fairly inevitable they will get to the very light stage in another month of winter, is there?
10) Ha ha.
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So where is the simple option of 'if and when they need it'? Common sense, not dogma required, as usual.
RAB
I was told that when it becomes to cold to process the syrup put on the fondant.
There is a subtle difference between getting autumn feeding right and having to change tack because you got it wrong. Feeding syrup for winter should be finished normally by the end of October, maybe into November (depending on the weather). Trying to feed syrup to mid-December is not the usual action of an experienced beek.
The ideal is that the box(es) are filled with stores (from nectar, syrup or fondant) by the end of the autumn and the bees are left in peace for the duration of the winter. None of this 'continued interference' throughout the winter. Think about it - that is what bees have done for millenia; if they got it wrong, for whatever reason, they were no longer in the gene pool.
So you clearly got the correct answer (from your mentor) to your question. Either you did not appreciate the subtlety of the answer or simply did not ask the right question or in the right context. It happens a lot.
RAB