Carolyn is a research associate with the OSU Honey Bee Lab. She has had many roles in the lab over the last 17 years, including apiary manager, developer of the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program, instructor for university classes and community beekeepers, and researcher of the many different issues that honey bees face. Most of all, she loves to help beekeepers successfully manage their colonies so they can enjoy all that honey bees have to offer.
Month: November 2026
Judy Scher’s Fondant Recipe
One of the most important winter chores is to heft the hive body to check if it’s light in weight. If so, it is low in honey stores. In the winter and early spring your bees will starve if they consume all of their honey reserves or they move to the edge of the hive where they no longer contact honey frames.
In this case you will need to feed a solid source of pure carbohydrate in the form of fondant candy. It is very easy to apply on one of those 50 degree days where you can quickly lift the hive cover and place the candy directly on the frames or inner cover. My bees love fondant more than anything else I provide at this time of year. It’s soft and, if they decide to store it, they don’t have to spend energy evaporating water from it. It’s fun to make – just be sure you don’t eat it before you get it to your hives!
BEE FONDANT
(Note: The first few times make small batches. 4 cups sugar to 1 cup water is a good amount)
1 part water: 4 parts sugar
(by volume or weight – I find that it doesn’t matter which, in this case.)
1/4 teaspoon vinegar per cup of sugar*
(If using 4 cups sugar, use 1 tsp vinegar.)
Put in pan and heat and stir until it comes to a boil.
Don’t let sugar burn! If it turns brown or dark tan, it may make the bees sick with dysentery.
Cover the pan and boil for 3 minutes.
Boil uncovered until soft ball stage** Do not stir.
(starts at 239 degrees F, ends at 249 degrees F ).
Turn off heat and cool to 200 degrees F.
Whip with a whisk until white (give it 5 – 10 minutes).
Pour onto waxed paper on cookie sheets.
Cool undisturbed.
Cut up into squares, separate with waxed paper, store in plastic bag in freezer.
When feeding bees, warm fondant to room temp and put on top of frames or around hole in inner cover. Do
not expose bees to cold for more than several seconds.
- The vinegar is used to invert the sugars to turn the sucrose in table sugar to glucose and fructose sugars found in fruits and honey.
** The “soft ball” sugar stage is described in wonderful web site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgRvA9Lk_N8
Different stages of sugar start at around 2 min 33 sec into the video. At 2 min 38 seconds the soft ball sugar stage is shown.