Quote Originally Posted by Calum View Post
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 -
I think you are being a bit hard there Calum. I'm sure bees need water to process fondant but they also need it to process stored honey. Furthermore they would not store fondant at this time of year - they will just consume what they need and when they are out of reach of honey.

I weigh my hives in the Autumn and just feed the light ones and feed just enough to get them through the winter. This year though they had such a poor late summer and Autumn that they had no young bees when I fed them and they used most of the feed converting it to young winter bees. I ran out of time and couldn't get enough weight into some of them so they have been given fondant in the last few days in plenty of time to feed them when they start laying again.

It's easy to criticise from afar but every colony is different and every location is different and every season is different. It's up to the beeekeeper to adjust his management to suit prevailing conditions and if that means feeding fondant at Christmas then that's what you must do.

Rosie