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Thread: Feeding Fondant

  1. #21
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    Hi Rosie
    you might be right there. Today I am visiting a guy that brings his bees through the Bavarian winter (which is probably easier as it is colder) on 9kg of feed per colony held on six frames in polysteyerine boxes out in fields. He has >300 colonies.
    If you had been adding frames of food instead of placing fondant on top of the frames I would have been less concerned.
    A supplier here came up with an interesting alternative -they supply fondant in thick polythene packaging. These fit exactly in a frame and can be held in place with tape. They are hung in frames, the pothythene is punctured so the feed can be placed right next to the winter nest. And no worries about the fondant sucking up moisture and it dripping on the winter nest. As the package has a limited feeding area the bees don't bother trying to store it in frames - so I am told - I have not tried them out myself.
    Whatever happens I hope your bees pull through!

  2. #22
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    I have lost two small nucs due to isolation starvation.
    Each had a slab of fondant immediately above the cluster.
    We had a week of temperatures down to -14 at night with maximums of -6 during the day.
    Fondant is no help at all in temperatures like this.
    If the temperature is + 6-8 degrees they will process it and maybe even store a little in cells.
    If it is really cold and the cluster is not in direct contact with liquid honey stores, it will starve.

  3. #23
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    I put candy on the feed holes only after the temperature climbed to a balmy 3 degrees! This sort of weather is very challenging for bees that are used to mild, wet winters, I suspect. I see the weather's due to warm up again at the end of the week so I'll maybe top up with more fondant if necessary. My lot just aren't used to 'proper' winters so I hope they make it.

  4. #24
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Hi Trog.
    At the last count I still had 19 colonies alive after the extremely cold spell but I do expect to lose a couple more of the weaker ones.
    Isolation starvation happens at times and I don't think there is much you can do about it.
    I think it happens more in small colonies where heat generation is a problem and the bees just can't move around.

  5. #25

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    Wintering the bees in this sort of prolonged cold spell needs bees that are able to sit tight for long periods and not needlessly rear brood at the wrong times. I am sure there is an inherited element to this but it also requires an optimum cluster size. Our locally adapted native bees have probably evolved this. Berhard Mobus did quite a bit of work on this aspect of wintering in the 1970s and put it down to problems with water balance within the cluster. He presented a paper to Apimondia on this in 1977, I think. Papers on this can bee found in the BIBBA publication 'Pedigree Bee Breeding in Western Europe'.

    After doing a mid-winter Oxalic Acid trickle treatment, if the cluster is close to the top of the frames I place a couple thin sticks across and a block of fondant directly over the cluster. Then I cut a piece of porous membrane (the sort from garden centres used to keep down weeds) cover things up then some insulating material and a crown board with mesh or a travelling screen. It is not good practice to simply place the candy over the feed hole. Free access and movement under the insulation is essential. The membrane material stops bees getting entangled in the kind of insulation I use.

    Alvearium

  6. #26
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    That's interesting, but I'm wary of removing the crown board in winter. My bees have never had any trouble using candy placed over the feed hole though in early spring they did tend to build comb up to it for easy access. I see Thursday's forecast to be warmer so hope they'll be able to get outside for a comfort break. There are moths on the window just now so it's clearly warmer than it's been for many a day. I do worry about the bees in such extremely cold weather, though; Mull bees are adapted to long spells of wet but mild weather (winter and summer alike!!). Minus 9 or even below freezing for a fortnight is not what they're accustomed to!

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