Apipasta vitamins 1kg bag

01 · WHY FONDANT

In the cold, syrup is worse than nothing

In autumn and winter bees need sugar, but the form matters. Fondant stays on the frames without spilling, and the hive's own humidity softens it just enough for them to take it. Liquid syrup at that time of year does the opposite: it chills with the outside temperature, bees drown in it, and it stimulates laying at the worst moment of the year. At 90 % dry matter and only 10 % moisture it does not ferment either: the maker gives it a best-before of 36 months from manufacture.

02 · WHEN TO GIVE IT

Autumn, overwintering and a cold start to spring

Three clear moments. In autumn, if late summer stores fall short, bags laid over the frames help top them up before winter. In mid winter, it is one of the few feeds a clustered colony will take. And in early spring, when there are flowers but the cold keeps foragers in, it keeps them supplied with energy until they can forage again. What it is not: a laying stimulant — that calls for light syrup, not this.

03 · HOW TO PUT IT ON

The whole bag, face down, with a small cut

Tear the paper and lay the whole bag face down on the top bars. The wrapper itself acts as a tray and keeps the moisture in the paste; a big hole dries it out on the surface and the colony leaves it half eaten — that is the number one reason someone says it went hard. Under the crown board or inside an empty super, whichever you have.

⚠ PRECAUTIONS

Do not feed during a flow or with honey supers on: sugar that goes up into the super ends up in the honey you are going to jar. Take out whatever is left before supering.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This format is the single 1 kg bag, meant for feeding particular colonies or trying the product. If you are feeding a whole apiary and run more than thirty hives, the 15 kg box works out better per kilo.