# Candy frames



## pcelar (Oct 5, 2007)

Nice!
Would you like to share how you actually make them, technique, proportions...


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## NDnewbeek (Jul 4, 2008)

My candy recipe is simple:

5lbs of sugar/1 quart of water - I usually make 15lbs/3qts at a time, that fills nearly 3 deep frames.

Boil to 275F (hard ball candy) and pour into the frames. Make sure that you get it at least to 275, or it won't solidify.

As for the frames, I just put them on tinfoil sheets on my extra bottom boards and clamp them to the edge. I turn the foil up at the ends and clamp scrap wood over it to make sure that the weight of the candy syrup trying to run under the frame doesn't push the tinfoil down.


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## iwombat (Feb 3, 2009)

I've been doing the same thing, but in frame feeders. (I add a 1 tsp of vinegar to the above recipe) They seem to like it just fine.


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## Cactii (Sep 5, 2009)

Thanks for this great idea NDnewbeek, it solves two problems for me in one shot.


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## SSmithers (Jul 2, 2009)

I tried boiling up some candy, but it came out too runny. Is it possible to knead in some powdered sugar or soy flour to harden it up so I can put it in now as a patty, instead of waiting for warmer weather and feeding as a liquid. It was warm enough on Saturday for them to fly-n-poop so I looked in top cover and they were chowing on the last chunks I made from powdered sugar. I keep making the mistake of starting to boil the stuff before I read a recipe...(don't come over for dinner)


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## Cactii (Sep 5, 2009)

SSmithers said:


> I tried boiling up some candy, but it came out too runny. Is it possible to knead in some powdered sugar or soy flour to harden it up so I can put it in now as a patty, instead of waiting for warmer weather and feeding as a liquid. It was warm enough on Saturday for them to fly-n-poop so I looked in top cover and they were chowing on the last chunks I made from powdered sugar. I keep making the mistake of starting to boil the stuff before I read a recipe...(don't come over for dinner)


You can re-boil it if you want. Let it boil for awhile, until it starts to stick to the spoon like molasses.

I made one of these lat last year and made the same mistake. It was messy but re-boiling it made it harden up quite nice.

A good indication is if you boil it and then scoop a bit out with a spoon. You'll see flat crystals form on the surface very quickly as it cools. Blow on it a bit if you have to when you're checking.


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## MTINAZ (Jan 15, 2010)

Can bees eat hard candy? Seems like an easier feeding technique


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## Cactii (Sep 5, 2009)

MTINAZ said:


> Can bees eat hard candy? Seems like an easier feeding technique


I've given my bees both hard candy in a frame and dry sugar. Mind you, this happened at different times of the year.

The girls devoured the hard candy frame and have pretty much left the sugar alone.


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## SSmithers (Jul 2, 2009)

If by hard candy you mean a purchased bag, I would expect it would be ful of all kinds of chemical garbage always included in mass production facilities. Not the basic sugar, water, lemon we are boiling up. Or trying to.

I keep starting with the level of water I want to be the finished product and only rerealizing later , when the bag of sugar is empty, that my end volume will be double at least. More, seemingly, for candy. Missing the mark is OK when its warm enough for baggy feeding. But at a club meeting, guy said he puts a candy block on shims over inner hole, and packs rest of attic box with newspaper for insulation and moisture absorption. They were all over the bits I had and tried, but I'm a mediocre cook, and lazy, and getting it right everytime will be a challenge. 

I appreciate the theory from the candy makers, but I rarely having the steadfastedness to stand over a pot for about an hour. I mixed some with powdered sugar, some with soy flour- and firmed up. I don't think in Ohio they get the protein until end of March, though. We're supposed to get snow another month.


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

Just a heads up as to the use of powered sugar!
Don't do it!!!
We use aprox. 5 quarts of water to a 100 pounds of sugar.
Bring it to a boil, a good boil the mix will look like a starch.
Note:::: you can not add all the water & sugar at once!
Bring the water to near a boil & then start adding the sugar.
Keep stiring as the sugar can burn & ruin the entire batch.


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## SSmithers (Jul 2, 2009)

With one hive where I don't think I need that much. I don't think they need it, but I would rather be safer. I thought I had read something about powdered being bad but don't know why.


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## NDnewbeek (Jul 4, 2008)

SSmithers said:


> I tried boiling up some candy, but it came out too runny.


You didn't get it hot enough. You have to get it to 275F or hotter. Cactii is right - you can reboil it, just make sure you don't burn it.

I find that my bees take the hard candy much better than dry sugar. Plus, a recent thread on the forum suggested that dry sugar contributes to Nosema and should only be fed in emergencies- but that is a whole other can of worms.


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## rwlaw (May 4, 2009)

SS the powdered sugar has cornstarch in it and causes dysentery from what I understand.
OK I'm following the hard candy in the frames (A beek in GR here has a line on 3# blocks and wants to put them on queen excluders under the inner cover ), but where do you place the frames in relation to the cluster?


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## Chick (May 21, 2009)

Confectioners Powdered Sugar is what has corn starch in it. If you can find plain powered sugar, it doesn't have the corn starch. When I first started bee keeping, in the '70's, there was an old bee keeper was getting barrels of broken peppermint candy, that he fed to his bees. He has been dead 20 years, and I have no idea where it came from. I wonder if the mint in this candy would be good for tracheal mites?


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## Cactii (Sep 5, 2009)

"He could always tell they were his bees by their minty fresh breath."


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## Bee Draggle (Apr 5, 2006)

I have feed my bees hard bee candy you make in the kitchen. What a mess. I found out they will eat granulated cane sugar right out of the bag. Just pour it in a division board feeder or put a sheet of newspaper over the top bars and pour it out of the bag. Much easier than making candy.


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

I learned the candy board trick from an old timer that has since passed away a few months ago.
I will never forget his statement to me & that was 
" a good many bee operations have been saved over the years by just a simple candy board "
The main thing we like is the fact that the bees can get up on top of the frames & congregate under the candy.
Much easier for the to stay in touch with one another as there then no frames in the way to impede there movement in the cold temps.


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## SSmithers (Jul 2, 2009)

I see what the candymaker means about it being a chemical change, its not sugar and water anymore, but I can't get it hard. I remember something about dropping it in water if you don't have a thermometer, threadlike then a ball? I put what I had that was hard across the hole, added newspaper layers to hold in heat and take in humidity, and they're up there now. It's 31 degrees in Akron. That works for me. Now if I can just boil water....


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## zippelk (Sep 1, 2010)

I just spent several hours trying this recipe. went nice and slow to avoid scorching. but by the time I got to the soft ball stage, it was totally brown and stank of caramel. any suggestions?


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## NDnewbeek (Jul 4, 2008)

It sounds like you heated it too slowly. I had a friend try it that way and he ended up evaporating all the water off. 

I make mine on a propane jet burner. It gets the solution to >280 in less than 10 minutes. Don't worry, it won't burn. Go ahead and get it to temp as fast as you can.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

NDnewbeek said:


> It sounds like you heated it too slowly. I had a friend try it that way and he ended up evaporating all the water off.
> 
> I make mine on a propane jet burner. It gets the solution to >280 in less than 10 minutes. Don't worry, it won't burn. Go ahead and get it to temp as fast as you can.


Agree, takes me about 10 minutes to heat to 240° which is the temp I use.


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

ND, you mentioned in one of the first posts that you use 5lbs of sugar/1 quart of water. Later another poster wrote "We use aprox. 5 quarts of water to a 100 pounds of sugar."

That's 20 pounds per quart or 4 times the amount of sugar than you use. Is that ratio a mistake or just another recipe? I'll be trying to make some to put on some hives before it gets too cold.

Wayne


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## NDnewbeek (Jul 4, 2008)

Wayne,

I can't really say about another recipe. Maybe it works for that poster, or maybe they make greater volumes at one time. 

I make small volumes. I haven't made frames yet this year, but I seem to think that 10lbs of sugar and 2 quarts of water made enough candy to fill two deep frames. I only ever do two frames at a time (the logistics of my setup are limiting!). 

It could be 15lbs and 3 quarts - but probably not more than that because my pot only holds 3 gallons total and the sugar LAVA that results is pretty scary - I don't like having to handle the pot if it is more than 1/2 full.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

This is the recipe I used this fall... I added some apple cider to help with the inversion. You can leave out the MegaBee, but I'm trying it on 9 hives to see if it works better in the spring.
http://www.megabeediet.com/candy.html


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## zippelk (Sep 1, 2010)

further observations from a noob: so as you read above, I apparently carmelized my 1st batch by cooking it too slowly, ironic as I was trying hard to go slow and NOT to scorch it! you have never seen anything happier than a pig eating 15lbs of carmelized sugar candy. anyway, my next attempt I cooked as fast as I could on my stovetop. those jet burners you guys use must use jet fuel, because I cannot imagine how violent a boil you need to burn off enough water to reach 280 in 10 minutes; cooking as hard as I can on the stovetop takes ~an hour to reach 280, but it worked like a charm = beautiful clear rock candy in a frame. in my next attempt, for a 2nd frame, the whole batch suddenly started to crystalize at ~250 (the candy websites say this happens when some crystals fall of the side of the pot and set off a chain reaction). I didn't know what kind of product that would give, i know it makes lousy fudge, but would it not solidify enough to hang in a frame, or would it disintegrate back into crystals? so I just poured it onto a cookie sheet. turns out it solidified beautifully and is holding form, so I think I will use that as mountaincamp. 4th try like the 2nd, 280 in ~an hour, another beautiful frame. so in 4 tries, I got a happy pig, a clear frame, a crystalized mountaincamp, and another clear frame. and a couple lessons learned.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

I use a turkey fryer to make mine... much faster. Bought it at a yard sale pretty cheap.


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## NDnewbeek (Jul 4, 2008)

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/sp10_propane_burner.htm

Worth every penny (although after about a year of use I did have to replace the regulator). 

I use it camping to fast boil water for dishes or cooking - and it can be turned down to heat a cup of coffee, I had to try it, put the cup right on the burner and it worked like a charm. 

It is a bit sensitive if the wind blows hard though.


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## Slabaugh Apiaries (Jul 16, 2006)

Yep,
I am amazed how beekeepers are willing to try different things to help the bees survive the winter. If you look at the candy board thread they have the same thoughts.
As for candy frames you need to make a frame mold to keep the wired frame you are using from moving while you fill it up. I have made plenty of them over the last few years and this works.

Candy recipe:
Start with a container that will hold 16 quarts of liquid or more and a good strong stirring device.
The heat source needs to have twice the BTU that a cook stove burner top would produce.
Like a turkey fryer and a large old aluminum pressure cooker pot.
Bring one quart of water to full boil
Add ¼ cup of white vinegar 5% acidity. (do not substitute) this is what makes the candy set up! 
Slowly add three five pound bags(or 4 -4 pound) of white sugar. Stirring all the time.
This will boil down to soft fudgelike candy after 20-25 minutes and needs to reach 242 degrees. 
Step one and can be poured into a form.
Step two
stirring all the time.
Optional:
Slowly add 1.5 pound dry powder HFCS
>>>This will allow you to add five to eight more pounds of sugar.<<
Stir to soft ball. 242 degrees.
Turn off heat and stir in 1 cup of honey
Stirring all the time.
Last whip in one oz of Honey –B- Healthy
Then Stir in as much sugar as possible without letting it get to stiff or dry! Small amounts at a time.
I can get around 8 more pounds stirred in
scoop into the wired frames and let sit to cool off.
This size of batch will do 3 deep frames that are set in a wax paper mold


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## slickbrightspear (Jan 9, 2009)

I put about 1/2 gallon of cold water in a 5 gallon bucket and keep adding sugar until I get a very pasty consistancy, just wet enough to barely pour it . I feed that like mountain camp does on newpaper being somewhat wet it gets the bees interested in it but it drys quickly enough not to run everywhere and the plus is no heating it. it dries almost like the hard candy you make.


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

I made a few TBH Frames the other day and thought i would try out a candy board recipe. After going through all the different kind of recipes thats been floating around beesource i decided to go with a small batch. It turned out pretty good. *Here is a photo of my TBH Bee-Pro Candy "Frame" Board!*


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## jjhagge (Jul 21, 2010)

iwombat said:


> I've been doing the same thing, but in frame feeders. (I add a 1 tsp of vinegar to the above recipe) They seem to like it just fine.


Is that 1 tsp of vinegar to the 5 pounds, or 15?


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## zippelk (Sep 1, 2010)

hopefully someone with more experience than I can chime in, but I threw away my batch that came out that dark. everyone says caramelized sugar kills bees, and that looks pretty brown to me. look how clear the sugar is in the original post, I think that is what you want. if it looks/smells like caramel, don't risk it.


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

Zippelk read what kind of candy frame that is and you will find out why its brown without the need for chiming! and thats exactly what i wanted. One clear and one dark!
*Here is the clear one with pollen patties in the middle:*


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## PAbeek (Aug 16, 2010)

I find that 10 lbs sugar to 1 cup water is a very good mix I heat mine to 250


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## pcelar (Oct 5, 2007)

I like this one. Nice.


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## MCC (May 30, 2008)

We tried adding MegaBee instead of soy flour and it worked real good.


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