The Candy Is In The Hives

The bee candy is in the hives. It was pretty easy to make. The recipe I followed just called for water, sugar and vinegar. There are other recipes that use water, sugar, Karo Syrup, and cream of tartar. A quick internet search will bring up a few different recipes. Below is a picture of the candy cooling in the molds.

I used two 9"x9" disposable baking pans lined with waxed paper. I didn't want to make a very big batch on my first try in case it didn't work out very well.

These next two pictures show Virginia first and then Georgia with there cakes of bee candy.

You can see in Georgia's picture that the candy is broken in two. I wanted to see how strong the candy was. It is about the consistency of stiff fudge but not as heavy. The waxed paper was difficult to peel off. The bees will eat the candy off any bits of paper that remain and will probably remove the paper form the hive if I don't get back in there first. I put jars of crystallized honey in as well. I wonder which one the bees will eat first.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that Georgia's cluster looked pretty small. When I opened her up today I saw that the bees were covering almost half of the frames. Looks like there are more bees left than there first appeared.

We are supposed to continue with warm weather for a couple more days and then get cold. I don't know when it will be warm enough to check on them again. I think I will prepare in advance and make up more candy just in case they need more before it is warm enough to put on a top feeder.