Just to give peace of mind I want to give some fondant for extra feed."Is the fondant in the supermarkets suitable?"It has sugar,glucose, vegetable oil ,glycarine and water as the main ingredients but has a few trace ingredients
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Just to give peace of mind I want to give some fondant for extra feed."Is the fondant in the supermarkets suitable?"It has sugar,glucose, vegetable oil ,glycarine and water as the main ingredients but has a few trace ingredients
The best stuff to get is bakers fondant as sold by the likes of Bako.
It's sold in 12.5k boxes which cost around ten quid depending upon how many you buy.
Check with your local baker and you can probably get a box.
I agree,same as Jon....Bako if you have a depot near you,you can find this out from there website,or from BFP Wholsale,but many local bakeries can be helpful in getting some for you. Contains just sugar glucose and water.
I bought some with vegetable oil in it - the bees wouldn't touch it.
Bought 4 packets at the weekend at £2.10 a kg. from Tesco.If they do take it "do you think it will do them any harm?"
could do, depends on what is in there with the rest that is below the x% of total weight that have to be listed (along the lines of may contin nuts). It only takes a very little of something toxic to kill a whole colony - that may well be of no concequence for human consumtion.
I just read about some guy that killed all his colonies by accident as he used grass from his garden to give the bees something to walk on in his liquid feed buckets.. It seems there was a poisonus plant in there with the grass that the sugar solution soaked up...
Cant be too careful. Also on the german forums there is talk of another guy that got sugar from a confectionary company that killed all his bees..
Managed to make my own fondant using glucose and sugar . Its in the hives now and they seem to be taking it o.k.
No point in taking chances. So far even after the extreme weather the bees are surviving.
feeding already? Dire straits! something not right there..
nope not at all.
If there are enough stores why unnaturally stimulate the bees ?
My worry would be that feeding now could encourage early brood (and varroa) production at totally the wrong time of year.
Also the bees use up their energy (and longevity) processing and storing fondant.
No there is nothing natural at all about additional feeding now, and if there is no need it is just additional stress on the colony.
I would try to avoid feeding fondant in March too, I'd prefer to hang full food frames from a colony with sufficient stores in a 'light' hive.
If I am informed correctly the bees require water to process fondant - so feeding fondant increases the flying time of the last remaining bees that need their energy for raising the next generation. And if feeding is done to promote brood production this is nought without enough pollen flow.
If you need to feed now (ie they are starving) you did a very poor job in August / Sept feeding. Or skimped on feed - which is frankly stupid - the bees give so much to us in honey and enjoyment- I remember my fellow scots as always being generous. & one could say that skimping on feeding is borderline cruelty.
ok rant over...
Doing less with (or too) the bees is often much more. They know what they are doing, I think a really good beekeeper observes and steps in at the right time to give a helping hand. I am trying to be a good beekeeper.