Fondant or not

[Beejud]

I hesitate to write this as I think I read an older thread on this forum which resulted in quite a heated debate on the use of fondant as (winter) feeding.
My question is whether it is ok to use some fondant over supers which are to all intents and purposes empty after this bad weather? Where there is still honey in supers I have just left the bees with that, but three of my colonies seem very light on stores. The weather is still cold, wet and windy so I put a tub of fondant over the feed hole on their crown boards. I know if I had used syrup it could be stored in the supers and affect any subsequent honey, but will fondant also be stored there? I'm hoping if I just use a small amount, little and often it will nurse them along until the weather and forage improves. Or is there something better I could have done?

[Jon]

I know of several nucs/colonies which have starved in the past week so if they are light, you will have to feed. I don't think it matters whether you feed fondant or syrup at this time of year but little and often would be best so that a significant amount does not get stored in the supers.
A colony full of young bees and larvae needs a lot of feeding and can easily get through a couple of frames of stores in a week.
I noticed mine were bringing in huge amounts of pollen yesterday afternoon when the weather improved a little.
Colonies are bound to be short of pollen at the moment and that is harder to rectify unless you have a stock of neopoll.
I haven't noticed any queens stopping laying yet which tends to happen after a prolonged spell of bad weather.
Most of mine had a fair amount of stores gathered in by the end of the a spell of good weather in April.
The only ones I have fed are queen rearing colonies and it is normal practice to feed 1:1 syrup little and often to make sure larvae in the queen cells are well fed..
I tend to put a pint of syrup in the feeder most days.

[gavin]

I'd take the frames out of the empty supers and store them (large cardboard box perhaps) then use the empty box to house feed over the feed hole. Tub of fondant is OK, or syrup in one of those plastic buckets with gauze in the lid, or an upright feeder where the bees make their way up to the syrup. Even a block of fondant, plastic-wrapped except where exposed to the feed hole, to keep it from drying out.

[Trog]

I'm feeding above the supers (only one on each hive) as the bees need the space. If summer returns, and with it a good honey-flow, I'll take out anything they've sealed which might contain sugar, give any uncapped stores to any weak colony which needs it, and use the sealed stuff on top of a brood box over winter for any strong colonies which will winter on brood and a half.

[Beejud]

Many thanks. Plenty of good advice there. I have been studying the weather forecast and hope to get into the bees and have a better look soon. I didn't want them to run short of food so it seemed the least disruptive method at the time. Sugar bags had been suggested to me before but I never seem to get the amount of water right and wasted quite a lot in the process. My bees tend to be a swarmy lot so all this bad weather has meant this has been a very different May from the usual. Come to think of it, when is there ever a normal year?There's always something new turns up. I never stop learning.