Winterizing a beehive should aim to ensure its colony stays full of honey; however, sometimes that doesn’t happen. In such instances, preparation should still take place so as to minimize risk for both colony and beekeeper.
An effective way of helping your hive avoid starvation during cold weather conditions and maintain their food reserves during winter and spring is providing them with a candy board for bees.
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What is a candy board?
Candy boards provide your bees with a food source in winter. Made up of hard blocks of sugar that the bees can crawl over and chew through, candy boards offer essential sustenance during this cold period.
Beekeepers typically place these boards atop their bee hives during winter, sometimes serving as an inner cover and helping regulate moisture levels inside that could otherwise chill and kill bees.
Candy boards for beehives can be made at home or purchased from suppliers. These forms typically measure about 2 inches high and hold enough sugar candy to feed your bees.
Why do I need a candy board?
If bees have had a hard winter and their honey stores have run low, a candy board may help sustain them until spring when their foraging bees can replenish their supplies of food.
Candy boards help control moisture from condensation that builds up in winter hives due to temperature differences between inside and outside temperatures, which causes excess moisture that causes bees to shiver uncomfortably and causes discomfort for them.
Substituting the candy board later in the season can help avoid this from occurring; otherwise, bees will chew through and leave behind excess sugar, potentially ending up at the bottom of their hive or on the ground.
Candy boards can be purchased from bee suppliers or you can create one yourself using this recipe. By insulating, ventilating and feeding your bees throughout winter you will ensure their comfort.
How do I make a candy board?
Beekeepers create candy boards to provide their bees with food during winter. While some hives might not get enough honey for them to survive the cold season, extra feeds provide some security until spring when more honey becomes available to their colonies.
Candy boards can be made out of any ingredients you like and are an excellent way of providing extra nutrition during the cold winter months. A candy board also helps ensure that bee colonies will remain strong and healthy over time.
To create a candy board, all that is required is purchasing or creating a frame to hold the sugar. Some bee suppliers sell specially designed forms for this purpose; alternatively you could utilize old hive bodies or super boxes from your colony as containers for this task.
To create a thicker and harder sugar mix, try mixing in water and vinegar to the mix – this will allow it to set harder without falling out of its frame.
How do I install a candy board?
Candy boards are an efficient and cost-effective solution to help ensure the survival of honey bee colonies during winter. Made up of hardware cloth with sugar sprinkled inside it and an entrance hole for your bees to access it through, a candy board provides your bees with essential nutrition while simultaneously giving them shelter against cold.
For best results when installing the candy board, first remove the outer cover of your beehive. Place the candy board with its hardware cloth side facing downward into its designated space, and re-secure its outer cover.
Idealy, installing the board should take place during fall or winter when brood rearing begins in late autumn and peaks during springtime. However, this decision depends on your particular hive’s circumstances.
Candy boards should be filled with an even distribution of sugary solutions so bees can access it from all sides. This will enable the bees to access it efficiently.
