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Author Topic: Bee candy  (Read 2469 times)

Offline Stung

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Bee candy
« on: May 18, 2013, 08:55:54 pm »
I am new at this and I want to make bee candy.  I'm told don't use any sugar except pure cane sugar.   I went and bought sugar off the Amish, but I don't know what kind off sugar it is.  I was told don't put corn syrup in the mixture, and put 2 or3 teaspoons of vinegar in it.  Would any body please help this poor sole.  I have bees coming in a couple days, I thought that it would be easier with the candy than the sugar water.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Offline JWChesnut

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2013, 10:40:26 pm »
There are many threads on this forum and the internet  in general about "fondant" or bee candy.   A good summary recipe is at
http://cheathambees.blogspot.com/2012/01/excellent-fondant-bee-candy-recipe.html

Note the instructions -- add vinegar to invert, don't overheat (use a candy thermometer), and whip vigorously to "whiten" and stiffen. 

I agree with Tefer (comment below) that bees reject the fondant in the summer - clean it out of the hive like any intrusion. The crumbles dump through my screen board.  Mixing sugar in a mason jar feeder makes a lot more sense.   I have top covers cut to fit the lid of a mason jar with a couple of pinholes, put the jar on, and the bees come up through the inner cover to feed.  Reduces robbing compared to entrance feeders, and easier to maintain than internal frame feeders, lower volume than dedicated whole super feeders.  A homebuilt migratory cover out of used plywood reduces the cost of feeder to the spaghetti sauce you bought to get the mason jar.

That said, let me make some observations about sugars.  Artificial nectar copies flower nectar.  Flower nectar is primarily a mix of sucrose, fructose and glucose.  Sucrose is a "double sugar" --  it is the loosely bonded combination of one fructose and one glucose molecule.   Inverting sugar with acid, heat or an enzyme breaks the sucrose into fructose and glucose, yield ing 50% glucose and 50% fructose (or if the process, is as typical, incomplete; some equal amount of F and G with the balance sucrose.  Cane sugar is 100% sucrose, but can be decomposed into F and G.  Honey is acid, and has been decomposed into (mostly)  F and G with about 55% Fructose (due to the native fructose residual presence in raw nectar).   High Fructose Corn syrup is 55% Fructose -- it is nearly identical in composition to honey in the major sugars, which is why unscurpulous producers and the Chinese, adulterate honey with HFCS. Honey depending on its source has various other higher sugars, proteins, etc.  Notable is Avocado honey (I am locally familiar with this) it has 6% persitol, a higher sugar, and consequently doesn't taste very sweet or very good.

Natural nectars have varying composition, but the nectars that have coevolved to attract European bees tend to have high sucrose content (at 80 to 90% sucrose), and are more concentrated (at 25% sugars) than the nectars for other pollinators (some are low sucrose and tend to be 20-21% sugar (as in hummingbird plants).

So the traditional recipes for feeding and fondant take sucrose and decompose it  by inverting to Fructose and Glucose.  I have no idea why this is considered better than HFCS -- which is already Fructose and Glucose, save the recipes likely have a residual sucrose component due to incomplete conversion.    
 
 There are good lines of research that the many trace components of floral nectar (flavanoids, amino acids, higher sugars) might have important roles.  So the sugar syrup (from whatever source) is a junk food that should not be the sole nutrition source.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2013, 10:58:40 am by JWChesnut »

Offline tefer2

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2013, 10:37:51 am »
Sugar water is easy compared to making candy boards.
My bees just drag the candy out of the hive this time of year. They want food that resembles nectar!

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2013, 10:59:06 am »
There are plenty of things blooming all over North America.  Why are you feeding?
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Offline Finski

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2013, 09:05:47 pm »
There are plenty of things blooming all over North America.  Why are you feeding?

and bee candy?  why? It is very unsuitable to  feed bees. It is developed to feed package bees and nothing else.

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Offline jaseemtp

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2013, 09:20:45 pm »
Where I am in Texas there is not much blooming.  If I was not or had not feed my bees I would have a multitude of empty boxes.
"It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!" Zapata

Offline Finski

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2013, 10:20:56 pm »
ok,

is it possible move the hives to a place where it can work normally.

However, it is better to give syrup to bees than give hard candy.


When I started beekeeping, my home landscape gove a good yield in June but in July I got nothing.
So I started to move hives 10 miles where nature gove a huge main yield.
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Offline jaseemtp

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2013, 10:25:45 pm »
Why would syrup be better than candy?  A problem I currently have is that there are to many hives on my property.  I am moving as many as I can to out yards.  I have found that when I feed candy I do not have the problems with robbing that I do when I feed syrup.
"It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!" Zapata

Offline Finski

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Re: Bee candy
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2013, 10:39:14 pm »
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Syrup feeding means that you put a feeder  on and then give 10 kg syrup at same time. It takes few hours when bees take the sugar in. I never use those feeding jars.

Bees must carry water all the time to dilute the sugar.

Actually I do not feed sugar during yield period if the honey is finish in combs.

It has happened sometimes that  when I move my 5-box hives to the canola field, I have feeded then before moving.  And that was at the beginning of July.

It has happened too that one place went -15 kg in July, when at same time another place gove 120 kg in 3 weeks.  that place have fooled me with that minus trick twice.

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anything