Candy

[Trog]

I'm making some candy to use up some heated cappings honey. I had it in mind to freeze it then give it out as Christmas presents for the bees but I see that some folk use it for autumn feeding. I'm delaying autumn feeding for the strong colonies as they've some super frames to finish and plenty of foragers to take advantage of the heather but I'm thinking that a block of candy onto each of the smaller colonies/oversize nucs would help them along a bit without causing the excitement and potential robbing that syrup could bring. Any opinions on this, anyone?

[Calum]

Hi
I did not think syrup smelt as much as honey does? Is it really worse for robbing?
Syrup attracts wasp certainly but I thought as with the attraction to rotten fruit that they perceive it differently as bees ignore fallen fruit completely...

[Trog]

Syrup seems to be greeted with great excitement and the neighbours quite often emerge from their hives to see what's up. If the hive's not precisely level, syrup sometimes gets to the edge of the crownboard and thence to the outside, which could attract visitors. (I use contact feeders; this might not happen with other types)

[Neonach]

There's very little water in candy, more in syrup, and it is the water vapourizing with warmth and flow of air that carries the sugar molecules (ie the sugary smell) which bees will detect. I buy 'candy' in the form of bakers fondant: this dries out in warmer weather - turning to hard crystals which the bees try in vain to mine. Hence I use syrup from spring to early autumn, then baker's fondant thereafter. This helps also because in winter the bees will find it difficult to reduce the water content of syrup, but the fondant won't need much processing. Also, I recall reading somewhere that syrup is more likely to give bees diaorhea than is fondant/candy. The syrup I give in Ashforth feeders, but a block of baker's fondant fits nicely in an empty super, so directly on top of the frames.

[Trog]

I feed candy blocks above the hole in the crown board as it's easier to see how they're getting on with it without chilling them and whether they need more. They've never had any problem reaching it though some build comb ladders to get to it! Since we acquired a Chinese takeaway (hurrah!), I've found that the clear plastic boxes they use are perfect for home-made candy.

[Jon]

I have always found that syrup is much more likely to induce robbing than fondant.
At this time of year you need to be very careful with feeding syrup to nucs if they are near strong colonies.

Last year I fed a nuc for a week then checked for stores. It was completely devoid of stores and the bees were clustered in a corner like Custer's last stand.
A big colony beside it had been robbing it as fast as I poured the syrup in.
Robbing can take place without being blindingly obvious as I hadn't noticed anything untoward in this case.

[Calum]

a good trick is to sive flour on bees leaving a hive to be able to see which hive is doing the robbing.

[onj]

I use sugar bags for winter feeding which I soak for a few minutes and dry to a hard block. Is candy better?

[Trog]

I've not tried the sugar bag trick, onj. The candy recipe I've used this time comes from 1906 or thereabouts and includes cappings honey but I've used pure sugar before and found that some bees simply tidied up and removed the granules when they didn't need any more feeding, which seemed a bit of a waste! I actually saw them doing it - flying out with granules and dumping them away from the hive!

[onj]

Maybe the hardened sugar prevents them from clearing it out, not sure. I've seen the bees carrying away the paper from the bags, long white streamers trailing behind them. The bags seem a lot simpler than handling boiling sugar!

[The Drone Ranger]

If you take an empty margarine carton and fill it with sugar that's about 500g add 20ml of water and mix it till the sugar is slightly damp
Then stick it in the microwave give it 1.5 mins on full power (750W)
Let this cool and it will be a brick of sugar.
The bees can get stuck into this providing they can get plenty water
It's easier than making proper candy.

[Adam]

Robbing can take place without being blindingly obvious as I hadn't noticed anything untoward in this case.


I had a case of silent robbing last autumn. Similar thing - syrup in one hive - finished up in another. Once I realised what was going on I shook icing sugar over the entrance of the robbed and white bees appeared at the hive 5 yards away! I closed up the robbed hive for 3 days and that was enough.

Syrup can get the bees excited and they come out of the hive looking for the food source. Dry sugar is not very palatable and needs a lot of water to allow the bees to dissolve it - they need water to use capped stores and that's 16 - 20% water already.

I have made candy but it's a bit of a faff - better than watching X factor I suppose. In theory it should not be needed if the colonies are fully loaded in the autumn. I like the margarine tub idea.