Making a Fondant Feeder

   Beekeeping is a little different in the maritime Northwest. It's a tough place to overwinter bees, not so much because of the cold, but mainly due to our wet winters and springs.  Often people ask me in October and November when they should feed their bees.  I tell them they should have feed them about two months ago. In our damp maritime climate it really isn't a good idea to feed sugar syrup that late into the fall.  The bees aren't able to reduce the moisture content and the syrup can ferment in the comb, causing dysentery.  Ideally a Western Washington beekeeper completes fall syrup feedings by mid September. Fortunately there is still something procrastinating beekeepers can do to supplement their hives' winter stores even in October or November. It may be too late to feed sugar syrup, but they can still make a fondant feeder.

   A fondant feeder can be made by simply attaching a surplus wood bound queen excluder to a shallow or western (medium) honey super.  (I consider all of my queen excluders to be surplus as I stopped using them about five years ago, but I will save that topic for another day.) I learned about this type of fondant feeder from a friend who had read about it in some Ohio beekeeper's blog.  He was very pleased with the results. It not only provided extra food for the bees, but also kept the hive drier, a major plus in our damp climate.

Queen excluder stapled to western super

     I used 1 1/2 inch narrow crown staples to permanently attach the queen excluders to the super.  I then painted the fondant feeder just like I paint all of my equipment. I don't just paint the outside surfaces, but also the surfaces where wood will touch wood at the top and bottom of the boxes. Those areas will wick water in our damp winters if they are left unpainted, making it difficult for the bees to keep their hive dry. Of course my favorite colors to paint bee equipment are any gallons of exterior latex paint I find in the mistint bin at the local hardware store. Since we don't have blistering hot summers in the maritime Northwest we don't have to paint our beehives white.

Sugar has been added to the lower of these two fondant feeders

I buy 50 pound bags of sugar at our local Cash and Carry

  Once the feeder is assembled and painted it is ready to be loaded up with sugar.  I mix up granulated sugar with one cup of water for every five pounds of sugar. Before I put the damp sugar into the feeder, I cover the metal bars of the queen excluder with sheets of copy paper. The purpose of the paper is to keep the moist sugar from falling through the metal bars until it has had time to set up. I cut a 1 1/2 inch diameter hole in one of the sheets of paper and then cover the hole with the small end of a paper cup. The damp sugar is then added. It sets up over night and becomes one large sugar cube by the next morning. The paper cup is then removed and the fondant feeder is ready for use. I generally put about 10 or 15 pounds of sugar in the feeder.

Finished fondant feeder with the paper cup removed

    Fondant feeders serve a dual purpose in our climate. Whenever the weather is warm enough for the bees to be active inside the hive, they will happily mine the sugar as a source of food. However, the fondant feeder also serves as a moisture sink.  Just like honey, sugar readily absorbs moisture from the atmosphere. Much of the moisture that would normally condense inside the hive is instead absorbed by the sugar block, keeping the hive much drier.

Observation Hive, December 6, 2014

   The observation hive has continued to dwindle over the past month with no obvious reason for the loss in population. It went from having more than three full frames covered with bees to less than half of a frame.  I'm suspicious that the cause may be the warmth of the store. I keep the store at about 70 degrees. Possibly the bees are flying out when it is much to cold and are failing to make it back to the hive. Most of the population loss occurred when we had a week or more of cold weather before Thanksgiving.

On October 16  there are 3 full frames of bees

After Thanksgiving the bees have dwindled down to less than one full frame

Queen Nora the First on December 6th with her few remaining minions

     I was so hopeful the bees would do better wintering in the observation hive this time. You would think a warm and dry location with an unlimited food supply would be just the ticket. Maybe this is just like children. It is not helpful when you do too much for them. I feel like I need to make a black velvet cover I can drape over the whole observation hive after the last bee is dead.  It is an Italian funeral custom to hang black drapes over the door for a period of time following a death. I observed this many years ago while serving as a LDS missionary in Northern Italy. This particular hive of bees were part Italian after all.

1,060 pounds of unfiltered beeswax

    On a happier note, I finally finished the big beeswax rendering project on Saturday, December 6th. My good friend Quentin started this project while I was on vacation in late October. Together we processed a grand total of six 55 gallon drums of cappings which resulted in 1,060 pounds of unfiltered beeswax.  All of this was done with my little Walter Kelly Cappings Melter.  Now I just need to melt the whole lot into one pound bricks so it will be in a convenient form to sell. We definitely won't run out of beeswax this year.