Candy for Honey Bees?

You may be asking yourself, CANDY FOR HONEY BEES?
Let me explain what I mean. I use a trick for winter feeding and emergence feeding my hives. They are called candy boards. I love candy boards, I have wintered more than a couple of hives with nothing else but candy boards, and had them make it all the way through winter and be in great shape and ready for the first flowers of spring.
So what is a candy board? It is no more than sugar that has been what is called “hard balled” or boiled at a temperature of 245 degrees for at least 5 minutes. It looks like clear rock candy and tastes just like it without the flavor of peppermint or whatever you remember rock candy tasting like when you were a kid. I have a very simple recipe to fallow if you would like to make this for your bees.
You take
10 lbs. white cane sugar
1/2 Quart of water
½ TBS of apple cider vinegar
Put your water and vinegar in a big pot (I use a 5 quart pot myself. I like room to mix it and not slosh it over the edge of the pan, trust me boiling sugar sticks and it does not stop burning, like napalm)
Bring the water vinegar to a boil and start adding your sugar-constantly string your mixture. Add your sugar a little at a time letting it liquify as you go. After you have added all your sugar you keep stirring until you get it to a roaring boil. Keep it boiling like that for at least 5 minutes, (any less and you will make taffy and not rock candy)
I use cookie sheets that have a ¼ inch lip on them to pour this into. I use aluminum foil on your cookie sheet and then wax paper over that. I found if I just use the wax paper the paper would stick to the cookie sheet. You can also use the realy heavy paper plates like Chinet brand, if you use them you do not need the foil or the wax paper you just pour the mix into the paper plate very carefully. If you would like to add (Honey Bee Healthy) HBH or some other kind of essential oil mix, you can just make sure to let you candy mix cool down stirring it the whole time to below 150 degrees. If you add the HBH before that it will boil the oils right out of the mix and it will not do you any good.
Why add vinegar? It is my understanding that the acid of the vinegar changes the sugar from a sucrose to a fructose which the bees can digest easier.
Some beekeepers will say that feeding this in the winter time is not good, because that bees need water to liquefy that sugar. Well, that’s the great thing about bees and feeding this in the winter. One thing that will kill bees in the winter time is moisture. Bees can handle being cold, but just like you and I they cannot handle being wet and cold. I have found when I use candy boards that the sugar will collect the moisture that the bees put off and traps it in the candy board and then the bees can reuse it when they take the candy. I have found this to be the best way to feed and help keep my bees dry in the winter.
Give it a try and see how your bees like it. Then come back and comment. Also, remember to tell your friends and everyone you know about us. That way we can help spread the buzz on honey and pollination.

Why I got into beekeeping

Why did I get into beekeeping? That’s a great question. I started back when I was a kid about the age of 12 or so. My dad had a small orchard and he wanted to have pollinators on it. A gentleman that he worked with had honey bee and so they started talking. My dad was allergic to the bees so I got picked to learn how to work them. This was back in the late 70s so trachea and verroa mites had not shown up on the scene yet. Working bees back then at that time was not like it is today. We did not have to be in the hives as much as we do today. In the spring you would put supers on and in the fall you would take supers off and extract your honey. I did not know about queen rearing or pollen trapping or any of that kind of stuff. So I did that for a few years and my bees did well. I got a little older and other things moved the bees out of my life and we sold them to a neighbor. So we jump up to today and where I am now. I get back into the bees in late 2008 early 2009 when that same neighbor was selling out his bees and bee equipment. I picked it all up again and starting running with it and have not stopped yet. I love my bees and working with them. My wife and I came up with the idea to start a small business, and Bee Friendly Beekeeping was born. We help other start in beekeeping or we manage bee hives for others. We give privet lessons on beekeeping as well as breeding queens and selling honey.
A man by the name if Dan Miller who is an author and speaker has books out called 48 Days to the Work You Love and No More Mondays) and those books are on how to take something you love and have a passion about, and make a living out of it. Well I love my bees and I love talking about them. I go to schools and talk about honey bees as well as anyone that asks me about them. Everyone I talk to tell me I need to do a blog and talk about honey bees. So here I am.
This blog is my attempt to do just that. To talk about honey bees and what you can do to keep them or if nothing else, help them.
So I am going to start off with the very basics and work from there. I feel that all beekeepers need to work together, the big commercial guys and the small hobbyists. We all have something to learn and to contribute to this small creature that we love.

Why I got into beekeeping

Why did I get into beekeeping?  That’s a great question. I started back when I was a kid about the age of 12 or so. My dad had a small orchard and he wanted to have pollinators on it. A gentleman that he worked with had honey bee and so they started talking. My dad was allergic to the bees so I got picked to learn how to work them. This was back in the late 70s so trachea and verroa mites had not shown up on the scene yet. Working bees back then at that time was not like it is today. We did not have to be in the hives as much as we do today. In the spring you would put supers on and in the fall you would take supers off and extract your honey. I did not know about queen rearing or pollen trapping or any of that kind of stuff. So I did that for a few years and my bees did well. I got a little older and other things moved the bees out of my life and we sold them to a neighbor. So we jump up to today and where I am now. I get back into the bees in late 2008 early 2009 when that same neighbor was selling out his bees and bee equipment. I picked it all up again and starting running with it and have not stopped yet. I love my bees and working with them. My wife and I came up with the idea to start a small business, and Bee Friendly Beekeeping was born. We help other start in beekeeping or we manage bee hives for others. We give privet lessons on beekeeping as well as breeding queens and selling honey.

A man by the name if Dan Miller who is an author and speaker has books out called 48 Days to the Work You Love and No More Mondays) and those books are on how to take something you love and have a passion about, and make a living out of it. Well I love my bees and I love talking about them. I go to schools and talk about honey bees as well as anyone that asks me about them. Everyone I talk to tell me I need to do a blog and talk about honey bees. So here I am.

This blog is my attempt to do just that. To talk about honey bees and what you can do to keep them or if nothing else, help them.

So I am going to start off with the very basics and work from there. I feel that all beekeepers need to work together, the big commercial guys and the small hobbyists. We all have something to learn and to contribute to this small creature that we love.

Boone County Fair

Thank you to all who stopped in to visit with us at the Boone County Fair.  We had fun introducing our girls (honeybees) to you and hope that you enjoyed them too.  It was fun to see people’s reactions when they realized that there were live bee’s in observation hive, especially children.  The children were totally fascinated by the honey bees and asked a lot of great questions. 

Just a reminder, the next beekeeping talk will be at the Lebanon Public Library on August 26th at 6:30.  See Ya There!

Bee Talks – Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Basic Beekeeping – Lebanon Public Library

Lebanon, IN

June 24th, 2010

6:30 to 8 pm

Join Jeff, the Bee Friendly Beekeeper, to learn about basic beekeeping and how to become involved in this fascinating hobby.  For more information call 765 – 891 – 1783 or contact the Lebanon Public library.

The First New Day of the Rest of my Life

Hello, 

My name is Jeff.

My wife and I own and run Bee Friendly Beekeeping, LLC.  We do more than just keep bees. We manage beehives for other people. So now everyone can have honey beehives and enjoy the sweet treats that come from God’s little girls.

I called this very first posting “The first new day of the rest of my life” for a very good reason.  I’ve been running like a chicken with my head cut off,  thinking that I was getting things done that God wanted me to do and that I thought were important.   WELL,   guess what?

 I was wrong.   The busier I am, the better I think I am.   The problem is that being busy is not what makes life worth living.   So I am starting all over starting today. I am going to strive to live with a simple code of thought and action.

          1.   Serve God in everything I do and say

          2.   Serve my wife as a godly husband that she deserves and that God calls  me to be.

          3.   Serve my children as the godly father that they need and deserve, and that God calls me to be.

          4.   To be a light unto a dying world as God has called me to be.

Now I know this looks easy and straight forward, but I know that I cannot do this on my own.   Only through God, by way of the Holy Spirit can I even think of doing this.

So my first official act, of the first new day of the rest of my life, is to offer this prayer to my God and Creator.

“God please grant me the strength, wisdom, courage, and love to do that which you want me to do.  Lead my life from this day forward, till the day I will see you face to face. ”  Amen.

OK now here’s how the story begins……..

When our neighbor asked us if we wanted to buy his beehives, (that he bought from me, many years ago), I immediately jumped on it.   I started the beehives when I was a young man living at home, and of course, as life made other demands, I gave up the hobby and sold my equipment to our neighbor.  Fast forward 20 years, and here I am.  Beekeeping has become my passion, and now I am sharing that knowledge, craft and art with others.  I’m looking forward to sharing this adventure with you.

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