Yesterday I attempted to make a honeybee fondant. It didn’t quite turn out just as I thought it should. Those guides should really have step by step pictures or video. Maybe I should have just consulted my good friend Jen over at Twenty-Something and Starving!
At any rate the first step was to measure out the High-Fructose Corn Syrup. I did one cup:
Man that's dark stuff!
Then I measured out one cup of sugar:
As you can see, we like sugar at my house!
All the while I had the final ingredient, water, coming to a boiling:
Then the mixing took place:
Slowly....slowly
Sugar's next
Then I had to wait for it to all combine:
Letting it heat up
When all was said and done I let it cool until it was warm to the touch and laid it out on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper:
Getting it ready
After a night in the fridge to harden (which it didn’t and just remained sticky. Lame.) I gathered my smoker, some fuel and my hive tool and headed out to my hive’s winter home in the front yard and put the fondant inside.
I checked back on the hive later that afternoon as I was about to make my way back to Rowan for classes, and to my surprise and supreme enjoyment my bees were flying!!
Still snow on the ground too!
Closer now…
Hey Girls!!
Closer still…
Long time no see!
So my day was made to see those tough little bees come swarming out, doing their thing and just plain surviving. I feel like a successful beekeeper now! However, I’m not out of the woods yet, there is still some tough weeks to get through but by the end of this month, things should be looking up!
Filed under: General, instructional Tagged: | bee candy, fondant, Twenty-Something and Starving, winter bees, wintering a hive
Love that picture of the beess!!!!
Glad to see they made it through the winter.
Nice close up shot of the bees as well