A beehive candy board is an efficient way to ensure your bees have plenty of nutritious food during winter. These boards are simple to construct and can serve a variety of purposes.
Some beekeepers even utilize a hive body or super box as the frame, with its rim serving as a shim that allows them to add sugar without disrupting the hive.
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Bees Love Them
Adding a beehive candy board is one of the most popular ways to promote bee health. They’re easy to construct and provide nourishment during winter when honey supplies are limited.
They can help prevent moisture from building up inside the hive, which could eventually lead to mold and mildew growth. Furthermore, they provide additional ventilation.
A beehive candy board is a wooden frame that holds hardened sugar mixture. They often sit atop the brood box during winter and serve as extra insulation for beekeepers who wish to keep their hives cozy and protected from outside elements.
When crafting the sugar mix for bees, soft or hard cane sugar can be used. Beekeepers often add water to the sugar mix for extra moisture, but you don’t have to; additionally, vinegar may be added as a mold inhibitor but isn’t required.
Easy To Build
Beehive candy boards, also known as beehive sugar boards, are two-inch tall boards filled with sugar for your bees to feed during the winter. Not only do they make great additions to any beehive, but they’re easy to make yourself.
When installing your candy board, the ideal time is in the fall or early winter depending on where your hive boxes are situated and how much honey you have stored. However, if you’re just adding it for insurance purposes, November could be a suitable month to begin.
To create a candy board, mix water and granulated sugar together in a pot and bring to a boil. Once it reaches the soft-ball stage (234.4-240 degrees Fahrenheit or 118-120 degrees Celsius), pour into your candy board frame and let cool.
Easy To Replace
Beehive candy boards are different from other bee foods like syrup or honey cakes that can get chewed up by bees and fall off the bars, since these boards are permanent fixtures inside the beehive. If all your candy is eaten up by bees, replacing it is a relatively straightforward process that doesn’t require much effort or expense.
Making a beehive candy board is as easy as mixing four pounds of sugar with one cup of water, creating an almost dry mixture that just moistens enough to stick together and spread onto the frame built for the hive.
Candy boards can be invaluable for emergency winter feeding if your colony is running low on food stores or you caught a swarm and don’t have enough space to store much. They’re also great for providing extra nutrition during new nuc season when more calories will be needed during cold temperatures.
Keeps Bees Healthy
Bees require additional honey during the colder months to stay healthy and strong. If they consume their stored honey too quickly, starvation could ensue.
Beehive candy boards provide your bees with essential sugar during winter months, helping them remain healthy and active until natural nectar returns. Not only this, but it can provide some much-needed peace of mind during the months when nectar sources may not be plentiful.
Some beekeepers also utilize sugar bricks as an additional feed for their bees. These consist of a mixture of water and sugar that’s placed into molds or pans, then secured with a feeding shim in the hive.
Another option is to make your own dry sugar. There are various recipes for this; some require boiling the sugar to create a harder candy, while others use no-cook ingredients which could be messy and require extra caution so the candy doesn’t burn.
