A sugar board is a solid layer of packed sugar placed above the cluster as emergency winter food for honey bees. It is meant for the cold months, not as a replacement for leaving the bees enough honey. Here is how it works and how to use one safely.
What a sugar board is
A sugar board (also called a candy board) is a wooden rim or frame filled with sugar that sits over the frames, usually with a ventilation channel, so bees can reach food without leaving the cluster in cold weather. A moisture quilt or insulation above helps keep it dry.
When to use one
- Late fall or winter, when a colony is light on stores and it is too cold to feed syrup.
- As cheap insurance for colonies that may run short before spring.
- Stop when the first nectar flow starts, not by the calendar.
For warm-weather feeding, see the right way to make sugar water for bees.
How to make a no-cook board
- Mix about 10 pounds of plain white sugar with about 10 tablespoons of water. Work it by hand until it looks like wet sand.
- Set a feeder rim about 3 inches deep on a sheet of plastic wrap, with a plastic queen excluder or screen across the bottom to hold the sugar.
- Pack the sugar firmly, leaving a small air channel in the center with a scrap of wood.
- Let it harden overnight, then remove the wood.
- Place it on the hive, with an upper entrance shim and a moisture quilt above.
Pollen patties can be added to the board late in winter, after the solstice, when colonies begin raising brood. See Nutra Bee pollen patties.
Safety tips
- Do not cook the sugar. Heated sugar, especially with acid, can form HMF, which is harmful to bees. Boiling sugar is also a burn hazard.
- Use plain white sugar. Avoid brown sugar, powdered sugar with additives and any sweetener that is not pure sucrose.
- Keep ventilation. Moist air from the cluster must reach the quilt, or condensation can drip on the bees or dissolve the sugar.
- Guard against mice. Cover any upper entrance with 1/4-inch hardware mesh.
- Expect some sugar crystals to be carried out on warm days.
Other options
You can also try the mountain camp method, which uses dry sugar on newspaper.
Bottom Line
A sugar board is a simple, no-cook way to keep bees from starving in winter. Pack it well, keep ventilation open, and start with enough honey stores in the fall. Check with a local beekeeping club for timing in your climate.
