Home made fondant.

[Dave86]

Hi all

I have fed my bees sugar syrup from bottle feeders and frame feeders but I haven't been happy with these forms of feeding. After a Google search or 3 I came across a recipe for fondant made from white sugar. After reading how to make it I decided to give it a go, so last night I made 2.5 kgs.

Well, what a boom, the bees went crazy over it. I also added a few drops of lemongrass oil. I put blocks into the hives last night and today a couple of hives had half devoured 200g blocks. I have made some more tonight as the hives are going onto avocado pollination and I want to build them up. I also have a few slow nucs that I'll be feeding.

After seeing this quick response from the bees I'll be using this method as needed and I'll also give an update in a month or so as to the progress.

[mikecva]

Looking forward to your update. I did the same 7 years ago and had to deal with ants. I ended up spreading pepper around and that solved my ant problems.   -Mike

[poited]

Gday Gave
Ive been looking at a few recipes and a suitable one I found has sugar, corn syrup and water nothing else. It doesnt contain marshmallow or glycerine and lots of other stuff. My biggest issue with feeding is having a liquid in a bag or a frame feeder in the hive, fondant is perfect. I did try using icing sugar (not the mixture) and sugar but the little bastards kept taking it out of the hive and not eating it.
I have seen people use a marshmallow instead of queen candy in their queen cages too, a pretty good idea if you cant be bothered to make queen candy up, or dont have any quickly on hand.
Hows the wood working going?
Chris

[Dave86]

Gday Gave
Ive been looking at a few recipes and a suitable one I found has sugar, corn syrup and water nothing else. It doesnt contain marshmallow or glycerine and lots of other stuff. My biggest issue with feeding is having a liquid in a bag or a frame feeder in the hive, fondant is perfect. I did try using icing sugar (not the mixture) and sugar but the little bastards kept taking it out of the hive and not eating it.
I have seen people use a marshmallow instead of queen candy in their queen cages too, a pretty good idea if you cant be bothered to make queen candy up, or dont have any quickly on hand.
Hows the wood working going?
Chris

The one I use is sugar, water and a dessert spoon of vinegar.

I reloaded the hives today as they had all almost demolished the lot, only got about a kg left out of 4.5 I made. The ironbark is also just starting to flower where my hives are but I'm moving them onto avocado pollination on Sunday morning.

Woodworking is coming along slow, waiting on the blades for the spindle Moulder to come back from the sharpeners and I'll be into it again.