Recipe: Fondant for Winter Feeding

This is a good workable amount for a 3-quart pot:
  4 lbs. granulated sugar (white)
  1 lb. water
  1 tsp. lemon juice or Apple Cider Vinegar (optional but the acid assists in keeping the sugar inverted)

Hopefully your hives aren't "light" and don't need to be fed, but if you had to feed heavy syrup in the Fall, then Winter feeding might be necessary as well. Syrup has moisture than can be a death sentence for the bees in Winter, so candy or fondant is a much wiser choice. A no-cook candy board is far easier to make but if you're inclined you might want to make fondant, which some say is easier for the bees to digest.

Certainly, you can buy fondant at Cake Crafts but it's got additives in it that can give bees dysentery. It's better to make your own. Making fondant involves inverting sugar, breaking the disaccharide sucrose into the monosaccharides fructose and glucose, and then controlling the molecular alignment of those simple sugars. Inverted sugar is supposedly more easily digested by the bees, and in the Winter you want to keep things easy for them. There are lots of recipes on the Internet for winter bee feed. Really old ones call for cream of tartar but I'd avoid that additive. Other than than, forget about the ingredients and the measurements; it's the method that matters most when making fondant. And don't  worry about fancy equipment either; all you need is a little patience and a watchful eye.

fondant

Winter Candy Board for a Warré Hive

The one thing I like about a vertical hive system is the options it gives you, but "options" means additional equipment which can present a storage space problem. If you're someone who appreciates buying something when it's on sale, with a coupon, using a card that gives cash back then you'll like this piece of equipment.

In the summer, I use a 3/4" wood rim as an Imirie shim. In the Fall, I attach 1/2-inch hardware cloth to it and use it as a comb-crushing screen for strained honey. Today this piece of equipment is being converted into a Winter Candy Board. The candy will be placed above the super (under the quilt), to provide emergency food should the bees eat all their honey. My preference is to have the hive winterized (i.e.: stocked with emergency food and wrapped) by Halloween, but a candy board like this can be slipped into the hive very quickly any time during the Winter.

No-cook Candy Board

No-Cook Candy Recipe: combine 3# sugar, 1/4 cup mineral salt (optional), 6 T. cold water, and 1/2 t. vinegar (optional). You may also add a few drops of anise essential oil to stimulate the bees' appetite.

If the cluster has moved to the top of the hive, the sugar provides both insulation and moisture wicking directly above the cluster. These properties play as big a role in the bees' Winter survival as food stores. The 3/8" hole on the side of the rim provides a very small amount of ventilation and is (technically) big enough for the bees to use as an exit/entrance if necessary. It'll take only one dead bee to clog that size hole so if you're looking to provide your bees with an upper entrance, you might want to drill a couple-a-few (as they say in CO) holes for them.

The Beekeeper's Calender: When the Perseids Fly, It's Time to Think about Winter

The Perseid meteors can appear in any part of the sky, but all of their tails will point back to the radiant. Image copyright: Spaceweather.com

What you do in August may very well determine whether your bees survive the Winter or not.

Bees require four things to survive a Winter
A) a good queen
B) a population of healthy young bees
C) adequate food stores (both honey and pollen)
and D) protection from the elements.

Preparing the Hives for Winter

File Photo: Blue Orchard Bee Cocoons.
Learn more about the BOB life cycle at Crown Bees.

The Mason Bees
We harvested the cocoons in June a little earlier than normal, because A) it was extraordinarily hot already and B) I was seeing chalcid wasps. After last year's losses to the parasite, I felt the need to protect the cocoons by bringing them inside the house. There the bees could continue to metamorphose safely. After a couple of months at room temperature, I put them in the dorm fridge to put them in diapause. I check the cotton ball in their little container periodically, to make sure the cocoons don't get dessicated.

The Top Bar Hive

The little TBH is still sitting over at Marty's house. He was glad to learn that we found a host site for our beehives just a bit north of us and said that the nectar sources in the area, especially sunflowers, would be good. He's just waiting for our call to say, "We're ready for our bees." I have yet to actually talk to the host and hostess, let alone see the site, though, so it's going to be just a tad bit longer before we reclaim the TBH. (My next venom shots – my 58th, 59th and 60th shots – start the Maintenance Phase of my immunotherapy, when it'll be less likely that a bee sting can kill me. That's pretty much what's been the cause of the delay.)

Primer: When to Feed Pollen Substitute?

Disclaimer: this post is a collection of a Notes to Self because feeding is a complicated issue and I can't remember anything unless it's written down.

In addition to carbohydrates from honey or sugar syrup, bees also need protein and minerals. Young bees need protein to strengthen their muscles, and also to produce brood food. Naturally, they get their protein from pollen. When it is in short supply, both the house bees and the brood they are raising may not develop to their full potential. In times of dearth, pollen substitute or supplement can help. Pollen Substitute is a pollenless combination of soy flour, brewer's yeast and milk powder. Pollen Supplement is just substitute plus real pollen.

Either substitute or supplement can be combined with honey or syrup to make it shapeable into a patty. The advantage of a patty over the dry powder is quickness of putting into the hive. Patties should be placed directly over the winter cluster. We don't have small hive beetles in Colorado, so the patties won't become breeding grounds for them. While easy and inexpensive to make on your own, I don't like having miscellaneous leftover ingredients hanging around for which I need to find both containers and storage space. Small house, remember?

1/3 of a pollen patty on top of sugar candy

Are My Bee Hives Ready for Winter?

Top Bar Hive – YES

The top bar bees either have 10 brood combs and 12 honeycombs,
or vice versa. Nothing's going on in the super.

Warré Hive – NO

The Warré bees never even considered building in the bottom box, but it looks like the colony is occupying the entire top box. They are supporting very full honeycombs by attachment to some top bars below, on the right. Note to self: buy cheese wire

One of these top bars is not like the others. I glued in paint stirring sticks to most of them, the premise being to give the bees a low point to festoon and therefore build comb from there. But one top bar has a chamfer glued to it instead, giving them more surface area to begin construction.

The Warré bees are going to need our help to make it. Odd for me, I am not torn about whether or not to feed this colony. It wasn't their fault they got put into a box that had two queens. It wasn't their fault their "swarm" was so small. They are getting fed. I hate that I have to take the syrup feeder off — it's attached nice-and-tight with propolis — but these bees will need candy for the Winter.

The TBH is inside a greenhouse so nothing needs to be done to keep it dry. For insulating purposes, I've simply piled up a bunch of stuff over the brood end: sheet styrofoam, foilized bubblewrap, a piece of wool felt, an extra migratory roof. Just random things that had no better uses. The goal is to prevent condensation from forming above the bees. We're leaving the super in place, to give moisture in the pantry a place to go. The bees won't heat that part of the hive, so if mold's going to grow, that's where it will be. They don't mind cleaning it off, but why make them work harder than they already are?

How quick does the cold kill bees?

"How much does the cold shorten the bees' lives?" was the actual question.

"None; they live longer," was my answer. Actually it was more like this...

Summer bees live about 6 weeks; they work themselves to death. Winter bees live maybe a few months; they don't fly much when it's cold so they live longer.

What worries me is not the cold, but starvation. When the weather is 20° above normal, like it's been, the bees are pretty active and burning calories. They're out flying but there's nothing in flower to feed on, so they eat up their honey.

On the other hand, when it's really cold, if they're huddled for warmth and can't move to go get food for 3 days — that's all it takes — then they can starve with honey just a beespace away. It's called isolation starvation.

So, I guess my answer was really, "3 days." Which is why, with fingers crossed, I put fondant into the Warré Hive. Winter finally arrived in the Backyard, with a rapid descent from 20-above to 20-below average. If the bees can't break cluster — or possibly two clusters if the weather shift was too quick for them to get organized — they just might be starving to death, with food over their heads. If only the temperatures would be average, that would be ideal. In the mid-40s, they go into a sort of stasis. More on that later... in the meantime, here's something for you to read: How a Second-Year Beekeeper Prepares for Spring

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You may also be interested in: bee fondant recipe high altitude or candy board

Whoops

So I'm looking out the window, staring at the snow-covered beehive, wondering if the little cluster of bees is warm and moving about, or if they're freezing and starving with food right over their heads. And then it occurs to me... there ISN'T food right over their heads.

When I checked their food supply this weekend, I noted they'd eaten an area clean. "That must be where the brood nest is," I said to myself. "Three bars." And I closed up the hive. I should've pushed some chunks of fondant over. Bees need to be "in contact" with their food in Winter, so let's just hope this isn't a Lesson Learned.

Warré Hive from the Bottom, Up

Beehive for Sale: Local Pickup Only.

This is a virtual your of my cedar Warré hive, all the parts and accessories from the bottom up. It was built by a professional carpenter, not home-made, and is sure to be compatible with any Warré components added in the future. I conferred with a few fellow beekeepers and $250 is a fair price, as the offering is for more than just a beehive. Here's what's included, from the bottom up.

The very bottom is a "deep sump" bottom board. It's better than a standard one because a) it's screened so mites fall through and away from your bees, and b) an extra couple inches makes it extra difficult for the mites to crawl back onto your bees. The extra depth also gives the bees space to beard inside the hive. There's a slot for sliding in a mite counting board (which can double as a solid bottom in the winter). It wouldn't be a bad idea to put the bottom board on a hive stand, especially if the hive will be overwintering in a spot that gets a lot of snow. That's a 4-inch flower pot, to give you a sense of scale.

This is a hive body. (I think this one is pine.) It has three holes drilled into it, currently plugged with corks, giving you the option to give your bees the option for upper entrance(s). Mine preferred the uppers. Successful beekeepers give the bees what the bees need, not what the beekeeper themselves would like. If this hive body is used as a super, these entrances enable your bees to "dump and run." They can deliver nectar without having to travel through the brood nest for efficient honey production. I've experimented with a variety of top bars. Whether paint stirrer, popsicle stick, tor riangle guide, they all work equally as well. This kit contains more than the 8 needed per box, should you ever decide to perform a single-comb harvest.

This is a hive body with an observation window. Brass hardware secures the shutter over the (plexi?)glass. Look through the window and you'll see the first three top bars are outfitted with short side bars (standard Langstroth parts). This is nontraditional but I like that the sidebars are "self-spacing" so you don't have to nail the top bars in to maintain bee space. Proper bee space encourages the bees to build straight comb. Also, most municipalities require that combs be inspectable so these are "to code."

This is a piece of brood comb tied into one of the "frames." It is a very valuable resource that can be used to attract a swarm in the Spring, encourage a package of bees to not abscond, or to encourage bees that have decided to stay put to build straight comb. Comb and lived-in woodenware are the most enticing things you can offer your bees. BONUS: this is all chemical-free!

This is an eke, sometimes called a Mountain Camp feeding rim, made out of teak. It provides about a 2" deep space to lay in solid feed like candy and pollen patties. You could also put a gallon-sized baggie feeder in the space.

But this hive top feeder is a much better (and plastic-free) way to give your bees a large amount of liquid feed, in a quick fashion. Fewer disruptions are best for any colony, but especially a colony that needs a hand for whatever reason.

This is a queen excluder. A honey super would go on top of this when your colony is ready to produce excess honey. It's a completely optional piece of equipment, but it keeps the queen out of the the hive body on top so she can't lay eggs there. Most people don't like brood in their honey. As you can see, the screen has propolis on it. The strong scent of propolis is very encouraging to new resident bees. It tells them that bees chose to live here before, so it must be a good home.

This is the quilt. The propolis screen (rolled up in parchment paper) should be laid between the uppermost hive body/super and the quilt. It limits how much the bees can gunk up the canvas and prevents them from securing the quilt to the hive body. The canvas needs to remain breathable so it can vent moisture up and out of the hive. The box is filled with shredded aspen wood, also known as excelsior. It should never feel damp. If it does, your colony has an extreme moisture problem.

The gabled roof "telescopes" down, completely covering the quilt. I stuffed a nylon garlic bag into the ridge vent to discourage wasps from building a nest in the roof. The large side vent is not screened but that might be a smart modification. [Side note: one thing that makes me love Warrés is the options they provide via modifications and accessories. Horizontal top bar hives are set-it-and-forget-it. Forget about making mods easily or outfitting them with accessories.]

A hive tool is necessary for hive inspections. This is a standard 8 or 9" tool (sorry, I'm too lazy to go find a ruler). I never got a chance to use my cheese slicer, so it's brand new. If/when your bees build comb that connects to the box below, a hive tool won't help you. But cheese wire will slice through the comb, allowing you to separate the boxes with minimal damage to the combs. Just make sure to slice from the direction where all combs get cut at the same time, otherwise you might cause a domino-effect and have a disaster on your hands.

So there you have it. A two body Warré Hive with accessories, ready for bees. Price is negotiable. Let's talk!

• deep sump bottom board
  
• (2) hive bodies, one with observation window
  
• all the top bars you'd need
  
• quilt
• propolis screen
  
• gabled roof
  
• teak solid feeding rim
• hivetop syrup feeder
• queen excluder
• bait comb
• hive tool
• cheese wire
  

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Related Posts: You may be interested in my Primer posts which include suggestions on How To Get Bees.

Unseasonably warm. Consider feeding your bees.

Warmest, driest February for you, too? March is when most colonies starve to death. Now, rather than asking if your bees have enough honey in their hive, ask yourself is it where they need it? There's brood in the hive now, and when the weather turns winter-like again the bees will not risk the brood getting chilled. They will not leave to get food. If they are not in direct contact with food, then isolation starvation can happen in as little as 72 hours. Take advantage of this warm weather to rearrange things in your hive. In other words, move combs of honey from the back of your top bar hive right to the edge of the cluster.

You may also be interested in The List.

Unseasonably warm. Consider feeding your #bees. 🐝 #Honeybees are more active than they should be and little is in bloom. The nectary of #JupitersBeard is too deep for them but some pollen is offered freely.

A photo posted by My brain runs on Bees. And 🍫🍫 (@backyardbee) on Nov 10, 2016 at 10:26am PST

[Originally published on 11/10/16.] Did you leave enough honey in the hive to account for record warmth in October AND November? This week would be good timing to make and insert candy for your bees.

When to Do What for One's Bees

We've found only one book specific to Top Bar Beekeeping, which we'll review shortly, but it's amazing what you can find on the Internet. Marty Hardison's "The Appropriate Bee Hive" is chock full of information, such as The List.

Keep in mind, Marty's hives are in Colorado and New Mexico, both at altitude and both extremely dry environments. We've gotten less than a half-inch of rain so far this year! Your apiary's timing may be different depending on your growing season. Instead of March, you might think "when the crocus start blooming." And instead of September, you might think "after the First Frost but before a Hard Freeze."

Marty Hardison's Seasonal Management: THE LIST [My notes in square brackets]

March
Inspect colony for a queen. Spring clean. Feed if needed. [Have fondant or candy ready. February and March is when most colonies starve.]

April
Be sure brood chamber is not honey bound. Harvest or move honey if needed. Feed if needed. [syrup]

May
Prepare for swarm season. Remove entrance restrictor when weather has begun to warm. Remove false back so that bees have enough space. Harvest all old honey. [indicator is dandelion bloom].

June
Check to see that the bees have enough room. Harvest fresh honey if space is needed. Remove drone brood from overwintered colonies. Check condition of queen if colony is not prospering. Consider requeening. Consider splitting if more than half of the hive is full of brood. [Super strong colonies when the Russian Olives start to bloom, in preparation for the main (Linden) nectar flow.]

July
Harvest honey. Remove drone brood. If more than half the hive is brood, consider a split. [Requeen. By splitting a second-year colony in late July, you create a queenless half with a break in brood that can ensure you have at least one colony in your third year. Without brood, the mite population cannot grow. Learn more about nucs and splits here: http://bit.ly/1bTfDOn]

August
Harvest honey. Remove drone brood. Organize combs for overwintering. [The Queen will begin to slow egg-laying but any Varroa present will keep on going. Remove as much varroa as possible; MAQS, drone cull or smoke w/sumac bobs, juniper bark and/or chaparral leaves.]

September
Harvest the last of the season's honey. Put on entrance restrictor. Move false back forward giving bees less space in which to winter. Determine whether feeding is necessary. [2:1 if overnight temps are still over 50°F, fondant if colder.]

October through February
Check on hives occasionally to be sure a cow hasn't overturned them or the wind hasn't blown the lid off. Don't open a hive unless absolutely necessary; the bees have a difficult time resealing the hive in cold weather. [We wrap our hives Halloween weekend.]