# When to Add Candy Board?



## LeonardS (Mar 13, 2012)

In Iowa, I install mine on thanksgiving weekend. I would think you could wait quite a long time yet.


----------



## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

Maybe I'm getting old and grumpy or am just tired of reading about people planning to feed during the winter time. If you are worried that your colony doesn't have enough stores for winter, feed it now! Winter time feeding ought to be done in emergency situations only - emergency as in the bees will die if they don't get food. How will you tell? By looking in your colony!!! Installing a candy board at Thanksgiving time? What herbs are in your turkey stuffing?


----------



## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Andrew - you aren't wrong, but you aren't entirely right either.  If you are going to use a candy board or mt. camp sugar there is no harm in installing it any time after you are finished feeding. That way you don't have to inspect for stores in the middle of winter. If they don't need it for food no harm done - make syrup out of it later. If they do need it then it's ready any time. In the mean time it absorbs excess moisture from the air in the hive, and depending on how you configure it any condensation that occurs will fall on the sugar instead of the cluster. Also in late winter you can tell if they need more just by peaking under the lid - no invasive cold weather inspection required. I know there are naysayers - highly respected ones - but it does have its advantages.

I do it between Thanksgiving and Christmas after all other fall manipulations.


----------



## LeonardS (Mar 13, 2012)

Take a pill, Andrew! I didn't lose a single colony last Winter, so I am going to continue to do what works for me. Yes, you are old and grumpy!!


----------



## tefer2 (Sep 13, 2009)

Thanksgiving up here, when they need it.


----------



## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

In late September there is just no way to tell what the winter is gonna be like! Even my crystal ball doesn't give me a clue as to whether this winter is gonna be so cold that your toes freeze off or so warm you think you're in Florida! The fact is that colonies often use way more stores those winters when they can fly every day than in the winters when they stay snug inside. And since we cannot tell in September WHICH kind of winter we are gonna have, it seems to me to be way safer to err on the side of caution and PUT WINTER SUPPLIES ON THERE JUST IN CASE!!! 

Fact is, come January there isn't a-one of us who can hop in his trusty time machine and zip back to do it in September if it turns out to be a year that they need extra feed!

JMO!


Rusty


----------



## Edymnion (May 30, 2013)

Andrew Dewey said:


> Maybe I'm getting old and grumpy or am just tired of reading about people planning to feed during the winter time. If you are worried that your colony doesn't have enough stores for winter, feed it now! Winter time feeding ought to be done in emergency situations only - emergency as in the bees will die if they don't get food. How will you tell? By looking in your colony!!! Installing a candy board at Thanksgiving time? What herbs are in your turkey stuffing?


I am feeding now. However I only have one hive at the moment, and they've been struggling along all summer due to a combination of a late start, requeening issues, and the overall bleh year everyone has had. As a result, the hive is not as strong as I think it should be right now. There aren't as many drawn frames as I would like, and I don't have anyone else that I could get drawn frame from, so I'm stuck with what I've got. All the feeding in the world won't help them if they don't have enough drawn comb to put it in.

I would like to still have a hive come spring, so I'm trying to give them every advantage I can. Come next year when they have really established a good strong colony, then I can more comfortably leave them to fend for themselves without feeding. Right now though, I'm not confident they would make it all the way through the winter without this, and I don't want to just let them die and replace them with a new package next year out of general principle/cussedness.


----------



## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

If you are using an entrance feeder, throw it away and get a good hive top one. Add some apple cider vinegar to the syrup (a tablespoon or two per gallon) to entice them, and they will take it down very quickly and even build comb. Should have done that a few weeks ago, but better late than never. I'd put on a gallon or so of 2:1 to try to stimulate wax production, but more than that should be 1:1, it's late and you want them to store as much as possible.

We are supposed to have a few more warm days, maybe a week, and you may get more comb than you might think possible.

If you can, put on half of a pollen patty as well, they need protein.

Put the candy board on when temperatures drop into the clustering range (45F). 

Good luck! I wish I'd have gotten this advise on my first hive, I wouldn't have lost it to starvation.

Peter


----------



## Edymnion (May 30, 2013)

They've been fed syrup all season, switched over to thicker stuff beginning of the month. We've had very good goldenrod around here, so there are no issues with pollen that I'm aware of (and it looks to me like they have plenty when I do an inspection).

Been feeding all summer because they were a late package install that immediately superceded the package queen after she laid one frame, then the new queen took a good two weeks to get laying, so long story short they didn't have young comb building bees for most of the season. They still have about a month before first frost date here, so I'm hoping they get more comb drawn out, but I'm preparing under the assumption that they won't. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. If they manage to fill out a couple more frames, great. If not, I'll remove the empty frames, consolidate down the drawn frames, and fill the empty hive space with styrofoam to reduce how much space they have to heat.


----------



## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

If you are worried about breeding a better bee than only survives if it is frugal with its winter stores, candy boards are NOT for you. My flowers are gone now and won't be back with nectar until dandelions and fruit trees in April. I can't keep bees unless they are alive to keep. If you put a candy board on now and they eat it, it would mean they felt the need to store it. If you wait till after Thanksgiving it will give them something to eat other than the lid when they hit it. My bees don't thrive on a diet of lid. I set up for Mountain camp when I wrap in October here. It is all local and personal management decisions.


----------



## Edymnion (May 30, 2013)

Yup, just got in from an inspection. They have drawn comb on 6 out of 9 frames at the moment. I'm not really expecting them to get more than that done before winter.

Plenty of stores (including some backfill in the brood), plenty of pollen. If they were this way in the middle of the season, I'd have been happily adding another deep. As is, they should make it through the winter. I hope.


----------

