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Stratford-upon-Avon & DistrictBeekeepers' Association  Tricks & Tips
Feeding Bees with Bakers' Fondant
I fed sugar syrup in the early years and always tried to have colonies fed by mid-September. However, as the number of colonies increased, the work involved in feeding became very demanding and I moved to using bakers' fondant - in line with many commercial beekeepers. I now use it exclusively for the following reasons:
No mixing or preparation.
Easily transported.
Easy to feed at any time, so useful for emergencies.
Can feed around 100 colonies easily in a day.
No need to feed by mid-September, so no conflict with going to the heather.
Feeding fondant later allows brood rearing to continue into the autumn, whereas feeding syrup will often fill all the brood area and stop the queen from laying. Young bees are essential for good wintering.
No need to overfeed in the autumn as it is easy to top-up colonies in winter or early spring.
Very little work for the bees - no processing of sugar syrup.
No fermentation of under-ripe stores.
Fits in well with my varroa management using thymol.
No leaks or spills, so no robbing .
Can feed with supers still on the hive. If the supers are then left on until the first frosts, there will be no waxmoth damage and no need for preventative treatment against waxmoth.
 I cut 12.5kg blocks of fondant lengthways and place these directly on the queen excluder. The polythene stops the fondant from drying out. An eke as shown here, upside down Ashforth feeder or an empty super go around it. The amount given can be varied by cutting the block in half or perhaps a quarter or a third of the way across.
 Supers can then be stacked back on top so that the bees have access to clean them and keep them free from wax moth damage. If placed on the hive in late summer or early in the autumn (August or September) then the colony will usually take the fondant down and store it in the same way as they would sugar syrup; if put on later, then it is often left on the excluder and consumed as required. This fondant was placed on the hive on 10 September 2002 and the photograph was taken on 4 November 2002 when most of the fondant had been taken down and stored. Peter Edwards
Updated: 7 November 2002 (Fondant Specification) There seems to be no clear definition of the terms 'candy' and 'fondant', with many beekeepers using them indiscriminately. Beekeeping literature is not particularly helpful, with TSK and MP Johansson (Some Important Operations in Bee Management) giving recipes for 'Soft Candy (Fondant)' and 'Hard Candy', whilst Morse and Hooper (Encyclopædia of Beekeeping) define candy as a 'soft, fudge-like sugar solid'. A range of boiling temperatures are suggested, from 234-240ºF (Johansson 'fondant'), 243ºF (Wedmore quoted by Johansson), 243ºF (Morse and Hooper 'candy' - did they get this from Wedmore? or Johansson?), up to 310ºF (Johansson 'hard candy'). Johansson suggests adding glucose, 1 tbsp to 3lbs sugar, in their fondant, but state that 'candy makers' use 15% glucose for 'excellent' fondant.
Some sources suggest using cream of tartar in the recipe, but both of the above point out that acid-inverted sugar is toxic to bees (LE Dills, 1925) and that if inversion is desired then only enzyme inverted sugar should be used. However, Johansson points out that 'The addition of acid arrests inversion, and accelerates crystallisation, which argues against the long-established rationale for inverting sugar syrup in the first instance.'
I telephoned my supplier of Bakers' Fondant (used by many large-scale beekeepers in the UK) to establish the technical specifications and method of production. They tell me that the fondant consists of: sugar 74.5% ± 0.5%, glucose solids 14.5% ± 0.5%, water 11.0% ± 0.5%. The ingredients are heated just to boiling point (approx 221ºF) and are then stirred in a creamer until cool. This produces a soft, fine-grain sugar paste.
I would suggest that the term 'fondant' should be used only for this type of sugar paste and the term 'candy' be used where the mixture is heated to a higher temperature (typically above 234ºF) in order to evaporate some of the water and make a more solid product. The one thing that is clear is that it would seem to be unwise to add cream of tartar!
Peter Edwards
June 2002
Special thanks to Peter Edwards and the folks at Stratford-upon-Avon & District Beekeepers Association for permission to reprint the article.
In a TBH you would do exactly the same except the fondant would be placed on the bottom near the last comb. You just need to insure they have access to one side.
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