In message 
<[log in to unmask]>, Lloyd 
Spear <[log in to unmask]> writes
>At the time Murray gave us the benefit of his soaked bags of sugar there
>seemed to be a consensus that this type of feeding was ok in an emergency,
>but lacking such an emergency it was better to feed candy boards with
>fondant.  My question is 'why' are the candy boards better?  Is it because
>of the added moisture?  Some other reason not obvious to me?

Hello Lloyd,

I was not talking about old style candy boards, which I doubt to be much 
superior to the dry sugar method you describe, apart from some inversion 
of the sugars already having been done and reducing the enzyme 
requirement from the bees. I was talking about bakers fondant, bought in 
boxes of about 28lb.(Fondant and candy are not the same thing.)

To keep it soft and easily edible to the bees you cut it up into cakes, 
in our case quartered into blocks of about 7lb each. ( this cutting can 
be arduous if using a hand knife, so do it with a clean spade kept in 
hot water, that cuts it easily.)

These are then placed into polythene bags (dont worry about taking any 
plastic wrapping off the fondant at this stage) and taken thus out to 
the hives. Immediately prior to pacing on the bees you make two slashes 
with a narrow (say up to one inch) gap between them, peel the polythene 
back off this strip to expose the fondant, and then place this cut, face 
down, across the top bars so several seams of bees have access to the 
food. Use however many blocks are needed to ensure all seams of bees 
have access to fondant.

Similar to the dry sugar method I described earlier, and differing from 
just putting sugar above newspaper, is that the integrity of the bags 
should be maintained on the upper surfaces. You do not want the moist 
rising air from the cluster rising up and away from the fondant or the 
sugar as this actually dries it and makes it harder for the bees to 
consume in difficult conditions. You want it entering the bag and 
condensing there, thus softening or liquifying a thin surface layer, 
ensuring useable stores on the surface of the mass.

I think we have been through this subject on several occasions in the 
past and I seem to recall Allen added a description to his pages.

In Europe special bee grades of fondant are available with an even finer 
crystal structure than normal, but in OUR environment this seems 
unimportant. It is also now available in specially packed single feed 
packs of about 2.5Kg. A search for 'Apifonda' ( from Sudzucker in 
Germany) or 'Fondabee' (from Belgosuc in Belgium) will show these 
products and their packaging.

Hope this clarifies things a little.

Murray
-- 
Murray McGregor

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