My colonies are all busy piling in the calories in preparation for winter. As always, at this time of the year I only feed my colonies using bakers fondant. This is exactly the same stuff you get on the top of iced buns. It’s available plastic-wrapped and boxed in 12.5kg blocks from a variety of […]
Perhaps surprisingly if the weather is still very wintery, inside your hives brood rearing has probably started . It’s about half way through the winter, there’s no forage available and the colonies are surviving on the stores they laid down in the autumn last year. But now they have a few more mouths to feed … […]
A little later in the year than usual due to work commitments … In late August 2014 I described how I feed my bees fondant in the autumn. It’s a simple, quick, clean and efficient way to feed colonies. Additionally, I’m reasonably convinced that there are advantages for the bees as well as the beekeeper. […]
With the season nearly over, now is the time to feed the colonies well and treat for mites so they have the best chance of overwintering successfully. I almost exclusively use fondant blocks for autumn feeding. I prefer feeding fondant to using syrup or Ambrosia for several reasons: I don’t have to spend hours over the stove […]
If you feed fondant rather than syrup in the autumn, or provide underweight colonies fondant in the spring, or use fondant to feed mini-nucs for queen rearing you’ll inevitably end up with leftover lumps. Some of these will be dry and pitted, some will have bits of bees embedded, some will have brace comb or lumps […]