Fond of Fondant

It's a beautiful and mild (60 degrees) winter day in Roswell...and with colder temperatures and a "possible weather event" coming later this week, I thought it would be a good time to give my bees a little winter boost in the form of fondant.

Fondant is a simple sugar candy. Here is my recipe:

2 cups white sugar
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1-1/2 cups boiling water

Combine and heat ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves. Then, heat — without stirring — until the mixture reaches 238 degrees on a candy thermometer (or until medium ball stage).

Pour into a bowl and let cool to touch. Beat the mixture until it's light and pour into a wax paper-lined mold.

As you can see here, I let the fondant cool a bit in a wax paper-lined loaf pan.

Later I removed it from the pan, lifting it by the wax paper. I put another sheet of wax paper on top and rolled the fondant out into a thin sheet, which I then cut in half. The bees will get half the fondant today and, whenever they finish it off, I'll give them the other half.

As soon as I placed the sheet of fondant on top of the frames, the bees were on it. (The darker substance on the left is a pollen patty that I placed in the hive a few weeks ago for a protein source.)

When I replaced the inner cover, a few of the girls peeked out at me and the sunshine. And then it was time to replace the outer cover and seal up the hive so the bees can eat and get back to their important work.