How to make fondant for feeding bees in the winter

I have decided to feed my bees over the winter in case there is not enough honey for them in the hive.

Certainly the little nuc box won't have enough honey so they need to be fed so I will feed both hives and hope they survive the winter.

My plan is to make fondant and I found a bee fondant on Youtube from DC Honeybees that I will try.  Here is the recipe based on that video.

4 cups water in 8 quart pot
Karo syrup (1/4 cup)
juice of 1/2 lemon
8 lbs of sugar

Add karo syrup and lemon juice to the boiling water
Add sugar to pot
Stir and cook until dissolved
Until mixture is 238 degrees (using candy thermometer)
Cool to 180 degrees without touching it at all

Transfer to mixing bowl on Kitchen Aid and begin mixing using wire whisk, low for 15 minutes, then high.
Run it on and off for several hours until it cools down. until it becomes translucent and gooey with the consistency of heavy icing or taffy.

This accomplishes these things:
1) helps to cool it
2) incorporates air to change structure
3) crystals begin to form and mixing it helps keep them small...again, to obtain correct consistency

Add cooled mixture to plastic container to store mixture using one gallon plastic container and let it cool to a consistency so that it won't run out when tipped upside down.

Put the plastic container on top of the top bars of the hive, tip it upside down, with newspaper under it...so bees will eat through it and get to the mixture.  Check to see if it's gone after a few weeks.

The outcome of making fondant

Here we are on October 7th and I finally did make the fondant above and placed it into the hives earlier today.

After rewatching DC Honeybee's video again, I saw a note that said turning the plastic container upside down didn't work out very well so he just put some of the fondant onto a paper plate and put it on the top of the top bars so the bees could get to it easily.  So that's what I did too.

I wasn't sure if I should also put on the inner hive cover now since I also removed the top hive feeder today.  The fondant will replace the sugar water I've been feeding them in that top hive feeder.

So I put it on and will hope for the best!

My fondant seemed to come out as described.  It had the texture of a thick taffy.  The bees were all over it immediately.  I'll check it in a week to see how they are doing. I'm anxious to see how long the fondant will last.  I didn't even use one-quarter of it today.  I would think this quantity would last at least a week and hopefully more.  We'll see.

Part of beekeeping is preparing beehives for winter - Part one

I'll call this post Part One because I'm sure I don't know enough about wintering over my beehives yet.  I still have some studying to do on that.  But last weekend, my friends at imaginethathoney@hotmail.com over in Swanzy, NH came to southern Vermont for our last class.  Wintering over was discussed and you need to prepare the bees for these cold winters here in the northeast.  Here are the steps I learned.

1.  Keep them warm (I will use bales of hay, with a 1 foot air around three sides of the hives and maybe a plywood or other roof).  I picked up 8 bales of hay and hope that will be enough to protect them. I have them in the hive area now, ready to be moved into place when the time is right.

 Move your hives close together to keep them warm.  Mine were only about 4 feet apart so I can move mine a foot or two a week until they are side by side.  I guess the bees get confused and not find their way to their hive if you move it too far too soon.

  Some folks make an insulated ring that slides over the hive (leaving an opening for air and an exit for bees)

2.  Provide the bees with an exit from the hive (they leave hive to go to the bathroom, even in winter)

3.  Plan for condensation that will accumulate inside the hive and if it drips on the bees, you have issues (this is the part I need to figure out as it was new to me). There are various ways to deal with this apparently. I'll get back to you on this part once I've looked at, and understand, the alternatives.

4.  If you have taken too much honey and have not left the bees enough for the winter, then you need to keep feeding them in the winter.  A few weeks ago, toward the end of August, I switched the bees sugar water to a thicker syrup, now two to one.  Two parts sugar to one part water.  On October 1st or so, I will stop supplying syrup.  At that time, it could freeze. So then I will switch to something called "fondant" which is a sugar patty, for lack of a better term, that you place on top of the frames in the hive and that takes the place of the sugar water.  I'll be looking for recipes over the coming days and try to make this fondant myself since I am not sure how much they will need to consume. More on that later.

5.  It's time to put on a mouse guard over the entrance to the hive.  As the weather turns colder, they'll be looking for a home so I believe mine will be going on very soon, if not this morning.  The mouse guard, if you recall looks like this image below with holes large enough for bees to enter and exit, but no mice.

6.  Periodically, I'll need to go to the hive during the winter to clear out any dead bees from the entrance.  Otherwise they could clog up the entrance and living bees wouldn't be able to get outside.

7.  Inspect the hive - I'll need to go in and clear out any comb built where it shouldn't be. And I need to get to the very bottom board to look for any mites, insects or mouse droppings.  I think I got the mouse guard up there before the mice are looking for warmth.  Plus, I have a greenhouse where mice like to nest. I'm prepared there with something to get rid of mice so if I had a choice, I'd rather they go into the greenhouse.
But, that being said, I really wish I didn't need to deal with mice and chipmunks at all!

Local honey from Southern Vermont in 2012

Here is the bottled honey crop this first beekeeping season.  I had been saving jars for some number of months and I thought I had plenty but used them all up quick enough. My grandson helped me bottle the honey and he was pulling them away and adding new ones pretty fast when that honey was flowing into them. Nice job T!  Then I pulled out canning jars too.

I guess I should start saving jars for next year's crop...thinking optimistically.

Next, I need to order beekeeping labels that indicate where the local honey was produced. I'll do this before giving as gifts. I have that order almost ready to place.

Local honey from southern Vermont in 2012

I also need to find more recipes that use honey in place of sugar, or just start by experimenting.  I did read that honey is sweeter than sugar by about 50 percent. So if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, I would try using 1/4 cup of honey and see how that works out.  I'll keep this blog informed as I try out some recipes over the coming fall/winter months.

Naturally the blog will change somewhat over these months but I will keep you up to date on bees too but there will be less activity with the bees.  But there is beeswax candles to make and get ready for gift-giving and food to prepare and lotion to make. I also have in mind to use some of my lavender flowers to make a few sachets from drawers...if I ever get to that. We'll see.  Stay tuned.

Fall garden cleanup list

In some ways, it's sad to close up a garden for the winter so I have mixed feelings about it.  I will miss having fresh flowers in the house, which I've had since the first blooms of hyacinths back in April.  I'll also miss the fresh herbs and of course the vegetables and fruits so available in the summer.

But the fall brings a time for cooking!  And fires in the fireplace.  And football. And apple cider with apple cider doughnuts. And more time to read.

This year, with the bees, has been especially busy.  But now is the time I can use up the beeswax and make candles and I have plans to make some calendula body lotion as well, using up the flowers I've been drying and saving for that use. More on that in another post

Here's a list of  fall tasks:

1. Mow all leaves and bag them and spread them in the vegetable garden to enhance the soil next year.
2. After the killer frost, cut down annuals or pull them out. (I trim perenniels in the spring rather than the fall so that birds can feed on any seeds and to give more depth to the winter landscape)
3. Spread mulch on delicate plants
4. Remove vines from trellises
5. Dig up some herbs and plant in pots (now is the time to do this), and move them to a cool porch to begin getting them adjusted for the house.  Next step, after a few weeks, will be to bring them in to an inside windowsill.  This year I hope to get some battery operated, stick-on plant lights to give houseplants more light.
6. Pull pump out of pond when pond plants die off (this can be done as late as November in the Northeast). The pump goes into the basement in a bucket of water to keep the gaskets pliable.
7. Ensure wood is delivered, cut, split and dry and enough kindling is gathered...and plenty of white birch bark, excellent for starting fires....I actually try to get this done early in the summer so it's ready for fall use but if you didn't do it early, do it  now!
8. Protect delicate roses or other plants that are most sensitive to the cold - add stakes around them and then wrap burlap around the stakes. Then fill with leaves to insulate the plant
9. Go to the nursery and buy plants on sale - - great time for bargains as long as you get them planted soon, the fall is a great time to plant...and nurseries are trying to get rid of their stock so there are bargains out there.  In the spring, for example, you can buy a boxwood that is about 6-8" high for about $7.00.  This weekend, I bought two that were double that size for $4.00 each.  
10. Move a few plants to the greenhouse or coldframe, if you have one, to extend your season.  I have 3 tomato plants there and my pepper plants. I also started more lettuce and cilantro in there to try for another crop.  The problem is light.  If you don't do it early enough, with no supplemental light, then it may not come up.