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My recipe/method for sugar blocks

324K views 471 replies 132 participants last post by  Beeman1554 
#1 · (Edited)
I ran across these photos and thought I'd post them again.
I put a sugar block on every hive that is in a single or when the cluster is near the top of the hive.

25# cane sugar
one quart cider vinegar
sprinkle of electrolytes
1-2 T citric acid (Found in your canning dept)
splash of pro Health or other scented essential oil of choice

Mix together about 1/3 of the sugar and vinegar at a time in a five gallon bucket with a large drill and paint paddle mixer. If you try to mix it all at once, you will get uneven moisture distributation.
Mixture will feel very soft, but not wet or sticky.
I use a shallow aluminum baking sheet that fits right into my Cabelas food dehydrator. You can use any size pan you want, but be sure your bricks are no taller than your frame extension under your inner cover.
Here I sprinkled some dry Beepro on the bottom of the pan.Don't do it, it just gets gummy. Sugar will not stick to the pan after it has dried.
Fill the pan to desired depth with moistened sugar mix:



Roll out and lightly compress in the pan:



NOW sprinkle with Beepro or other protein mix if desired. I don't want to force them to eat protein if they don't want to, especially if they can't get out for cleansing flights regularly:



Be SURE to cut the sugar into block sized before it hardens. You'll never do it after it's hard. It takes about 2 weeks sitting out in the unheated greenhouse to harden.

But will set up and harden in 1-2 days in the food dehydrator at about 130 degrees:



You can also let it sit several hours in your oven on low temp

Here is the brand of electrolytes and vitamins I've been using for two years with excellent results:



I bought it online at ValleyVet.com (I use about 1/2 tsp per 25# sugar)

Here is the application and overwintering results.
Heer is a double nuc with a large volume of bees.



You can see the sugar block is almost gone. This photo is late winter 2012:



Even hives that are heavy will still consume this block. I was surprised they would do so, but it didn't worry me they would reserve their natural stores for spring when they started raising brood. And that is exactly what they did.

Here is a photo of a hive that was just bursting at the seams in a single deep late summer. In Sept. Relucently, I threw on an undrawn shallow and left for hunting for 2 weeks. I was surprised to see by the time I got back they had drawn and filled the center of the frames. So now..dummy..I thought, now they get to go through the winter with empty new frames on the outside. DOH! Here is another good example of feed directly above the cluster. Although the bottom deep was packed and heavy, they still seemed to appreciate the sugar.



All the hives I put sugar blocks on treated them the same they consumed the middle of the block first, directly above the cluster. The condensation from the cluster forms syrup droplets on the brick. Easy for them to take up. Every hive I had, when checked in late winter has open syrup in cells near the brood nest. With no flow that time of year, I attribute this to the sugar brick.

Even without experience, I think most people would guess new undrawn frames have no use or insulation value in an overwintering hive. Here is a dorkey video I made to show you, in the event you have drawn frames that are empty available, to fill them with at least something-for R value if nothing else. The sugar recipe is exactly the same for filling drawn comb:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwC8aEA3FOw

Here is how they take to the sugar filled comb:



Feed on the top bars, directly above the cluster is very important. I wouldn't use the frames filled with sugar as a reliable feed source overwinter. But it fills up the empty spaces within the hive. And as you can see, do eventually get to it. This frame is in early spring. Below the sugar is new larva and eggs, then pollen. Actually a nicely worked frame. Did they eat the sugar, or haul it out? I don't know for sure, but saw no evidence of sugar granules on the bottom board or entrance area.
Compare the photo above to a natural, honey filled frame below. You can see they work a sugar filled frame just like a honey filed frame:



On a closing note:
Since beekeeping details are critically local, I'll give you a few more details to consider:

My bees are all very dark Northern bred with Carniolan genetics in the background. I overwinter in large colonies, which appear to be frugal with their stores. You might not be able to get away with overwintering Italians this way.
I feed my bees fortified syrup and protein patties during late summer dearth. Large hives heavy with stores get just enough syrup to keep brood rearing somewhat active. Nucs get fed regularly. I go into winter with a lot of young healthy bees and heavy hives.

My climate, although wet, is fairly mild. My bees can get out for cleansing flights on a regular basis. There has been some discussion previously on Beesourse that feeding sugar during winter months causes dysentery. I have never had one case of dysentery, ever. I never treat with fumagillin, ever. I do however put cider vinegar in every feed I provide to them. I go through several cases of cider vinegar a year. I wouldn't spend the $$ if I didn't think I got a benefit.
Northern colonies have to endure a fairly long winter inactive period.

Use REAL cider vinegar, I might add. Not Cider FLAVORED vinegar.

It is possible, these sugar blocks are not necessary. But I don't have the years of experience some do, and feel comfortable with the extra security. I had excellent overwintering results.

Hope this helps with your winter prep. Others feel free to add recipes and your techniques.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miller-Compound-HoneyBees-and-Agriculture/256954971040510
 
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#211 ·
Don't know if you have tried this or not but i cut 1/2" angle iron the width of the dehydrator. It sits well on the front of the brackets and holds a rack of sugar pans. Just one piece in front seems to do the trick but you could also put one across the back if worried.
 
#214 ·
Feeding them in autumn is the normal plan for most all beekeepers, if the hives are light. The idea behind the sugar bricks is simply to give the bees a little extra in case they need it. Sort of an insurance plan. Sometimes even with the most well thought out plan to make sure the bees are ready for the winter some don't do as we like. For those instead of letting them starve, we choose to give them the sugar blocks to get them by. Or at least that's why I do it.
 
#216 · (Edited)
I do feed in late summer & fall. I'd say 95 % of my hives are more than well prepared for winter.

But there are always some hives/nucs that won't quite take up enough feed to put on weight. Many times they are the ones with late mated queens in nucs that are still rearing a lot of brood and the drawn combs are already filled with ether brood or feed. There's just no place for them to put more feed and they are not interested in drawing new frames when days get short.
I also feed a surprising amount of wet protein (Patties) which are consumed, not stored in that situation. (Brood to feed)
These frames in the center, in the photo below, are all filled, mostly with brood. You can see the papper from patties they've taken up. Although they've been fed syrup, they will only take up so much. There's no way early/late fall to get more weight on them. I've already combined all I want to. WIth a sugar block on top the frames, they overwinter just fine. Otherwise they would likely perrish.






I also give my singles (With no feed above the cluster) a block. Even if they are quite heavy, They have easy access to the block and come out of winter in fantastic shape. In fact, it is probably Because I feed late summer to get a good population of young bees for overwintering that these singles need a block.

If I didn't feed syrup to stimulate late summer/fall brood, these single would have a smaller population of mixed age bees, and if left with only their own stores might limp along until next spring. They certainly wouldn't come out of winter with the strength I get with my feeding program. Come February/March, the hive below will be black with bees.





I leave my feeders in the hive all winter-empty of course. Convenient to have already in place for feeding in the future. I don't have any deadouts to take drawn filled frames from to replace the feeders so they get left in. What I generally do with these is take out the queen and 5 frames in spring and leave the rest with the feeder with a new virgin or capped cell. Then they will use the feeder.



Whoops :)
Even this single will get a brick. This comb was 2/3 full of feed so I just left it. I'll give them a sugar block overwinter and let them live on the mess :)
Definitely have to give them a bit of a scrape come spring.






Syrup is cheaper? How so? Sugar is sugar. All other ingredients are the same as I use in syrup. A little more vinegar, no water, a few drops of essential oils doesn't drive up the cost more than a few cents.. The work is no big deal. After months of 14 hour work days sweating in my bee suit, I have the luxury of making blocks at my leisure, without my beesuit and without being mauled by hungry bees or yellow jackets. One block generally lasts a colony for a couple months. I don't know about less work. I got up way too early before the sun comes up to mix up late summer/ fall syrup and I spend a lot of time distributing it to the hives.
 
#219 ·
I mixed up 16 pounds of these tonight with Heinz real apple cider vinegar with mother (not flavored). Put them in our oven at 170 and what followed nearly cost me marriage. Ok, not that bad, but my wife was NOT happy. They were in for about an hour or so, two of the three pans were pretty wite and firm to the touch, the other was quite wet yet when she finally made me get them out of the house. So they are in the garage now witb a fan on them and the wet one already looks much drier. It will be 13 degrees here tonight... hopefully no ill effects. They are in the garage so, it should stay above freezing. Luckily we have pretty dry winters so they should dry up well.
 
#220 ·
jw - I forgot to mention the aroma didn't I. Sorry! It does put of a very loud aroma while it's in the oven. My wife is very understanding, she and the kids went to grandma's while I was doing ours. When they got back, house smelled like vinegar but went away pretty quickly. lol.. Bees were very happy though! :)
 
#221 ·
My attic is a hot spot thru out most of the year without being use.
During a sunny day the temp. can exceed 115F. At one time the glass fish thermometer with
a mercury indicator got cracked in a hot summer when I left it there. Maybe the wifey will not smell
the vinegar if you dry your stuffs inside. Yeah, the fresh mushrooms will dry in one day there. Maybe to
make the cakes a few days in advance to try.
Going to try a few bricks this winter also. Got 20 lbs of the chickpeas very high in protein (22g) fine flour along with the megabee pollen sub.
BTW, does anyone knows a way to roast or cook the flour before mixing in with the pollen sub? Also, it is o.k. to put the finished quarter inch pollen sub under these
sugar bricks?
 
#222 ·
laketrout: I used the the same vit/electrolyte you reference because that is what I could get. This is my first batch of the bricks so am hoping they are ok. From looking at the ingredient list of both, the Durvet is very similar to the AgriLabs brand that Lauri uses in her recipe, only it has a bit less of some of the vit/electrolytes and it does not have probiotics. Would love to hear if others have used it and how it worked for them. My bees seem to love the bricks.
 
#223 ·
I made 15 lbs. of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of organic apple cider vinegar as per someone's reduction in the recipe above and it turned out great. I heated the oven to 150F (turned it to 170F and let it cool a minute), turned it back off, and put them in for a couple hours (in 2 batches). My daughter was complaining about the smell when she came home from school, but I didn't really think it was THAT bad. At least ACV is a health food, it's not like paint fumes.

Last winter I made sugar blocks with just water, no ACV, and the fronts of the hives were brown streaked. This winter, with only vinegar and not water, I'm hoping it works for them better. Can't wait to get it out there, especially since our polar snap has just arrived. It's time to winter!
 
#226 ·
To finish out my sugar brick experience... two hours at 170 was no where near enough to dehydrate my bricks. It got about 1/3 of one cookie sheet dry, the rest of them were relatively wet and crumbled. One seemed more wet than when I mixed it. So I have four nice pieces and a whole bunch of crumbles. Total they were in the oven at 170 for about 3.5 hours. One is still in it. I only mixed up 2/3 of a batch and I still have 12 ounces of ACV left so it's not like I used too much liquid.

The chunks will obviously work, especially in my top bars where I don't have to worry about small pieces falling between frames.
 
#230 ·
To finish out my sugar brick experience... two hours at 170 was no where near enough to dehydrate my bricks. It got about 1/3 of one cookie sheet dry, the rest of them were relatively wet and crumbled. One seemed more wet than when I mixed it. So I have four nice pieces and a whole bunch of crumbles. Total they were in the oven at 170 for about 3.5 hours. One is still in it. I only mixed up 2/3 of a batch and I still have 12 ounces of ACV left so it's not like I used too much liquid.

The chunks will obviously work, especially in my top bars where I don't have to worry about small pieces falling between frames.
 
#235 ·
Did not put any HBO or any liquid other than ACV. I am starting to wonder if I shorted the sugar in the second one bucket I mixed. My almost two year old daughter was helping so I was a bit distracted. Two pans were OK the third has been in the oven for over five hours. Still soupy, but did not seem any worse than the others. I am probably going to scrape into bucket and mix in more sugar.
 
#232 ·
I too tried the sugar blocks method...using my stand mixer to ensure the vinegar was well mixed into the sugar. If your blocks are not drying well, then there was too much liquid to start with. My blocks dried right away in an oven that had been warmed to 200F then turned off when I put the tray of sugar mix in.

I have to say, I do prefer the cooked sugar brick recipe, where you simmer sugar in some water and vinegar to 136F, beat in a stand mixer until it starts to cloud and go white, adding a splash of HbH and electolytes/vitamins at that point and before pouring the mix into wax paper lined molds. You get a slightly fudgy but reasonably smooth product that is less crumbly than the baked sugar mix, and my suspicion is that the bees feed on it better.
 
#233 ·
I think there may be a difference between Lauri's recipe bricks dried in an oven, at higher temps and for a shorter time and those dried in the longer-process of a proper dehydrator. I happen to use a dehydrator and my bricks take at least eight to ten hours to dry and they are rock hard and not crumbly at all when done. Once I was presssed for time to finish new ones and get them in the hive during a short mild temperature window and while they looked done, they wound up being more crumbly and when you looked at them on the side you could still see some color stratification within the brick. I have also learned to not make them too thick, as they seem to dry less well.

WesternWilson, would you mind posting your cooked sugar brick recipe? I would like to try it as an alternative.

Enj.
 
#234 ·
Happy to! Sorry the spacing does not work out nicely once posted...I used Lauri's ingredients, and adapted a recipe from somewhere online http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...eding-bees-winter-zbcz1311.aspx#axzz3J9Zyicvt

http://www.ccbee.org/beefeed.htm

http://www.cornwallhoney.co.uk/beepedia/sugarsyrup.htm

Note the hot sugar syrup is really dangerous. Be very careful and wear good oven mitts. I like the silicone ones with nice padding.

Sugar Bricks.........................large batch..................1/2 batch................1/4 batch (or you can try 1 c. liquid to 1 lb. of sugar)

sugar.....................................25 lb...........................12.5 lb.....................6 lb

real cider vinegar......................1 quart........................2 cups................... 1 cup

water......................................3 quarts.......................6 cups....................3 cups

citric acid.................................2 tablespoons...............4 teaspoons.............2 teaspoons

vitamin/electrolyte granules (opt)..4 pinches..................2 pinches.................1 pinch

feeding aid, just a splash ie. honey b healthy or equivalent (optional)
gob of clean honey (optional)

Protein based bee feed powder (optional)


-bring cider vinegar and water to a simmer
-add sugar, stir constantly till you get it to boil...lower heat once it begins to boil so you don't have it foam up and boil over!
-simmer till you get to about 235F on your candy thermometer/digital probe (if mixture sets too fudgy and soft, heat up a couple more degrees next time)
(note: I am lazy so I just bring the mixture to a boil, let it simmer for a couple of minutes and that seems to work pretty well)
-remove from heat and let cool a bit
-being VERY CAREFUL, pour syrup into stand mixer and beat with all metal wire whip until syrup starts to get white and cloudy
-when temp falls to about 90 degrees F, beat in your citric acid and vitamin/electrolyte granules, dissolved in a bit of water or vinegar
-at this point you can add your flavouring agent ie. HbH or equivalent, and some of your own clean honey...both are optional.
-pour into wax paper lined molds ie. cake pans, loaf pans, whatever, aim for about 1" thick
-if you like dust some protein based bee feed powder ie. beepro or home mix for protein patties on top of brick, optional
-let cool, turn out and put on top of top bars over cluster, protein side up. If you place a screened inner cover over the sugar brick and under the quilt box, you can check easily to see if bees are feeding, on any sunny day.

NOTE: You can buy winter fondant patties from bee companies and take a pass on the kitchen mess!
 
#236 ·
I made up basic sugar bricks this year...5 kg sugar, 2 cups apple cider vinegar or water ...into aluminum pan 1.5" deep...into dehydrator at 130 degrees...dry like a sugar cube in 23 hours...able to use after 12 hours and likely sooner in a pinch.
 
#237 · (Edited)
Just to address some comments:

If you are uncomfortable using pure vinegar for liquid, just substitute some of the vinegar with water. But you may not get the same results I do. I use to make mine with half ACV and water and wanted to see just how far I could push the recipe. When I made them with pure ACV, the bees responded with extra enthusuasm and vigor. I was sold.

The effectiveness & saftey of vinegar has been discussed in this and other threads. This recipe in the OP just is what I use -and I get excellent results with my overwintering success. I still have never had a single case of dysentery. I still have never treated with fumagillin.

Some will say this is all just a Placebo effect. But when I place a block on a colony, I see an immediate response & long term effects. I certainly wouldn't take the effort to do something that was a waste of time. I've got plenty of other work to do.

I settled on this recipe after a couple years of trials. Adding this and that unitl I came up with a recipe I felt had the right amount of nutrients without being too strong. I was more concerned with overdosing the electrolyte mixture than anything. (A package will make 220 gallons of diluted livestock water) By observing the reaction of the colonies during and after they had their brick, I based my recipe on what I felt were positive results.

This brick IS a concentrated formula. A decent sized brick is equivalent to about 1/2 gallon of 2:1 syrup..without the water. It takes them about 2 months to take it up-unless they had no stores of their own. That is such a slow rate, the concentrated mix appears to be just perfect for a slow release feed source.

For those that have more experience with plants than bees, think about your slow release fertlizers..if released immediatly they would likely burn the plant or stimulate rapid growth. But when released over a period of 2-3 months, they have just the right strength for nutritional maintenance.

As far as the smell of the blocks drying:
I do mine in my greenhouse so the aroma is not an issue because I don't do mine in the house :) That aroma however, is probably one of the reasons the bees like them so much.

I have never had a robbing issue with blocks. By late October, my hives are all settled in for winter. Even with sunny daytime flying, there are no summertime/fall behavior like robbing. Most of my blocks are on my smaller colonies, which would be vulnerable to robbing if it was an issue. In my yard with my strain of bees, it is not.

This set up (below) worked really well this year. An old salvaged stainless unit with a small hot plate.
Set on low for a couple days, they dried perfectly.



New pans are made slightly larger than the old pans, so they had to be tipped slightly to get them in. But I let them sit on a flat surface for a couple days to allow liquid to absorb fully into the sugar before placing at an angle.

I still use my dehydrators, but need more bricks these days.



I'm not saying anyone has to feed bricks or make them like I do. All I know is how they work for me, they are fast and easy to make, compared to other cooked methods, they are fortified, unlike straight dry sugar winter feeding methods. They need to be made up ahead of time, but are easy to store, handle and quickly slip into hives when weather is bad.

They are not meant to be a replacement for fall feeding and good management, but if circumstances leave you with a colony that is in need, they work in a pinch.
Even colonies that are well prepared for winter love them though. Maybe they should be called an 'extended release winter nutritional block' instead of just a sugar block.

Could this be a placebo effect on the bees? It is a possibility. The size and dosage of the blocks is quite small compared to a larger colonies needs.
But as most of you know, the attitude of the colony is very important. Attitude can be everything.
If they have an over wintering 'contentment' or more enthusiasm and are eager to build better come spring, I'm OK with that.

Perhaps someone with knowlege about bee nutrition could improve on the recipe with additional ingredients.
Off hand, I can't think of a think I'd change.
 
#265 · (Edited)
Perhaps someone with knowlege about bee nutrition could improve on the recipe with additional ingredients.
Off hand, I can't think of a thing I'd change.
I saw a presentation by Noah Wilson-Rich, a researcher interested in honeybee nutrition and immune response (his Ted Talk can be found here). He spoke about the similarity in the biomes of Honeybees and humans, and that the bees could benefit by adding probiotics to syrup for feeding.

He cited this study: Bacterial Probiotics Induce an Immune Response in the Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

by JAY D. EVANS and DAWN L. LOPEZ
USDAÐARS Bee Research Laboratory, BARC-East Building 476, Beltsville, MD 20705

J. Econ. Entomol. 97(3): 752Ð756 (2004)

ABSTRACT
To explore immune system activation in the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., larvae of four ages were exposed through feeding to spores of a natural pathogen, Paenibacillus larvae larvae
, to cells of a diverse set of related non-pathogenic bacteria,and to bacterial coat components.These larvae were then assayed for RNA levels of genes encoding two antibacterial peptides, abaecin and defensin.Larvae exposed to either P. l. larvae or a mix of non-pathogenic bacteria showed high RNA levels for the abaecin gene relative to controls. First instars responded significantly to the presence of the non-pathogenic mix within 12h after exposure, a time when they remain highly susceptible to bacterial invasion. This response was sustained for two successive instars, eventually becoming 21-fold higher in larvae exposed to probiotic spores versus control larvae. The mixture of nonpathogenic bacteria is therefore presented as a potential surrogate for assaying the immune responses of different honeybee lineages. It also is proposed that non-pathogenic bacteria can be used as a probiotic to enhance honey bee immunity, helping bee larvae, and other life stages, survive attacks from pathogens in the field.


I modified Lauri's basic recipe slightly, adjusting the amounts based on 10# of sugar (for hobbyists like me that don't need as many blocks):

10 pounds sugar
1 Tablespoon citric acid
1/4 teaspoon elecytrolytes
3 capsules probiotics (available from your local health-food/whole-foods)
1 and 1/4 cups Apple Cider Vinegar

This filled 3 aluminum 8" x 12" x 1" trays, which dried very quickly in my Excalibur Dehydrator set to 130 F.

Admittedly, real Apple Cider Vinegar (with the Mother, not the ACV-flavored vinegars) contains probiotics; I just added some additional strains (based upon the suggestion by Noah Wilson-Rich).

Cheers,
Tony P.
 
#241 ·
I will be watching for folks thoughts on the comparative value of these two products...is spending extra $ going to get significantly different results?
 
#242 ·
How does an extended sugar blocks thread
ended up like this.

I had use beepro and megabee before. I like
the mega better in fast consumption and fat
winter bees build up. But it tasted awful in the
powder form almost like salt and vinegar powder.
Not something I like to eat. Has anybody tasted
the bee pro before to give a description?
 
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