Winter Feeding of Bee Candy

I'm trying something new this winter for feeding bee candy. I'm using half sheet pans to hold my candy and a 1 1/2' spacer rim. The sheet holds around 8 pounds of sugar instead of 25 pounds for a traditional candy lid.

I'm hoping this new process works out. Its nice to be able to use spacers for more than just mite treatments. And I really like not having to build candy lids.

Funny Hunny?!?

Honey is a commodity product which is produced and shipped all over the world in bulk. This can make the honey you buy cheap. There is one problem though. You don't know if you are getting honey or funny hunny. Funny hunny is honey that has been adulterated with corn syrup or other sweeteners.

The easiest way to make sure you get pure honey is to know your beekeeper. That's me! My family is proud to bring you 100% pure honey made by Kansas bees.

You can read more about funny hunny in this article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_food_and_farm_bogus_honey

Honey Extracting

Fall is here and the harvest begins. Below is an quick look at my 18 frame radial extractor at work.

A view of the apiary

Brood Is Here

The girls are capping brood. It won't be too much longer before the hives start exploding with bees. I can't wait.

Spring is Here

It's time to get down to beesiness. I checked the hives this week and things are looking good. We came out ok even though it was a hard winter. It's time to feed, feed, and feed some more.  Feeding a 1:1 sugar to water syrup will stimulate brood rearing. This is an important step to gearing up the hives for the spring nectar flow.

Bee Candy Frame

I'm trying a bee candy frame. I took a new frame with plastic foundation. I added some wire to the outside of the frame to help hold the candy. I poured the candy onto the frame while it was still very hot. The candy firmed up nicely. I'll let you know how it worked out in a future post.