Well its getting to that time of year again when liquid feeds are no longer an option, by the end of October the cold weather should have taken hold rendering the bees unable to cope with syrup feed.

Depending on how much honey has been harvested or the strength of the hive will depend on the required feeding. If you have a strong hive and you have not taken any honey it would be fairly safe to say the bees have stored enough honey to get them through the Winter. Although checks should be made throughout the season to make sure (generally done by lifting the hive to determine weight, if its light feeding must be done).

However lets assume you want to feed your bees anyway. Using fondant or feed paste is the suggested feeding strategy in Winter, however its not, as a lot of people think just ordinary cake fondant (Im sure a lot of people use this successfully though). The fondant can be made up at home or can be purchased from somewhere like Thornes. Thornes supply fondant called Apifonda and it contains extra sugars like fructose and glucose. What you will notice about this fondant mixture is that it is in no way as hard as ordinary cake fondant, its much more malleable and will actually absorb a little moisture when placed in the hive.

This is why I would suggest either making your own fondant or buying something ready made like Apifonda, plus it has extra sugars that will help the bees. Ordinary cake fondant tends to go to hard when left in the air.

So now we have our fondant what exactly do we do with it? Well it is advised to place it on top of the brood frames (if the super is to remain on with honey you could place the fondant on top of these), spread it out and push it down between the frames slightly, so the bees dont need to move far to get it. A pack of Apifonda combined with their honey stores should tide them through until Spring but remember to do the weight check just in case.

When adding the fondant to the hive you should notice the bees hightened aggression, this is to ensure the safety of their stores, so make sure you have all your gear on to prevent stings.