HIVE ALIVE Bee Food Fondant for Winter, Spring & Fall Feeding, Single

Update 2/14/2024: This is my second winter using Hive Alive fondant and patties as supplemental food in my hives. We've had a strange winter in NY, with warmer days that allow the bees to fly and some very cold spells. In our last warm spell a couple of days ago, I checked in on their stores of fondant and patties and found that they had eaten through almost all the fondant, so I replaced the bags with new ones to get them over the last few weeks of winter - and it was a good thing, since we've now had snow and it's very cold again. Anyway, I do feel that this supplement gives the bees something more than the traditional fondant I was making in the past. I don't think I will lose a single hive this winter (I have 5 now - I didn't lose any last winter either when I had 3 hives) and the Hive Alive is the only thing that is different as far as winter prep and care goes. The bees all look glossy and healthy, and I don't seem to have suffered much population loss in any of the hives, but especially not in the smaller swarm hives from late last spring. With the very changeable climate where they are spending more time active, I do think it's beneficial to make sure to supplement feed over the winter and Hive Alive seems to have truly helped my bees stay in good health! I also use the liquid additive in my sugar syrup when supplement feeding in spring and fall. I heartily recommend this product! Original post 7/2023 I'd been using the Hive Alive liquid supplement for a year when they came out with the fondant and I figured I'd try it out for winter feeding instead of making my own candy boards last winter. The bees absolutely love this fondant, almost more than they like their own honey supplies, I think. I was a little nervous about and still don't love the plastic bag - Hive Alive recommends just cutting a slit in the bag and putting it facedown on the top bars - but I cut a fairly large rectangular hole out of the bag to make it easier for the bees to access and to exit. I also used a screened feeder top that I made with a couple of shims and some wide chicken wire to keep the fondant off the top bars themselves. They're the feeders I used when making my own fondant, so I just put the Hive Alive fondant (and a couple of Hive Alive pollen patties) on those. When you open your hive and you find a nearly empty plastic bag full of bees, it can be a little daunting to empty! On warmer days last winter, I would open the hives quickly to check their food supplies and as they ate thru the fondant, I would cut away more of the plastic bag. But that's my only issue with it, and I don't know if there's any way to improve it, other than just removing the plastic bag entirely, which seems difficult and more trouble than it's worth. The bees don't seem to mind and it may be that the plastic bag helps keep some heat in during winter months. As to the bee health claims that Hive Alive makes, I can say that I've definitely seen an improvement in how the bees look - they're glossy and chunky coming out of winter and I've had more success getting hives to survive the winter. It's hard to attribute this to one supplement obviously, bc there are about a million different factors that can cause a hive to die or thrive, but I do think it helps with overall bee health. You will still need to do mite mitigation and good winter prep and practice good hive care, of course. But I do think it's worth it to use this supplement.

Update!! Winter 2025-26: I have 2 hives now. My 2024 surprise hive is 2 boxes tall now and I've just ordered a 2nd HiveAlive for them (12.23) bc when I checked on them, the previous bag was quite full of busy, happy bees!! The fondant left remained only around the corners! Per the instructions, I cut an oval-shaped hole on one side of the bag, around the HiveAlive logo... which is about the size of the hole in my inner cover. I placed the HiveAlive on top of the inner cover with the hole I cut in the product over the hole in the inner cover. This means the bees can access the Fondant but because the product bag is laying flat over the wood few éeinner cover, they aren't able to get ddmeout & about on top of the inner cover/under the lid. (No dead bees) Hive 2 has 3 boxes but they are eating the fondant more slowly than the 2 box hive. My old review --Winter 2024: Easy to use and the bees seem to really like it! In addition to using this product, I reduced the entrance to 3 in wide and wrapped the beehives for the winter. Used this product last winter to help a new colony survive the winter months. They were a surprise coloney that moved into an abandoned beehive (1-story hive box) and hadn't been there long. I believe this product helped them survive the winter and they did great over that summer!

Bees like it. My hive survived winter. Problem with bag is that it collapses once they eat the center out. it would be nice if they included a spacer to insert in the bag when you buy a box.

Though my bee mentor didn’t recommend them, I got them anyway and didn’t lose any hives over the winter.

All our hive winter thru feeding this to them this year. Easy to use, a little spendy but cheaper than buying more bees.

My bees like it.

We have used other supplemental Fondant Patties. The bees never used very much. We put in a 2.5 Hive Alive patty with a new package of Russian Hybrids and they consumed the entire patty in a week and a half and they have been building and comb and filling it like crazy.

I’ve been using this for the last 2 winters for my beehives. Each time, the bees survived. This isn’t the only factor, I’m sure, but it didn’t hurt them at all! I peaked in this spring and they had devoured the whole thing.

Wollte meine Torte damit belegen aber dieser Fondant reißt sehr leicht. Er ist fast brüchig. Geschmacklich ist er Hervorragend. Den Bienen mudete er auch. Ich hatte streifen geschnitten von verschiedenen Futterteigen und dieser war einer der beliebtesten.

Pas le format habituel pour du candi, très plat.

sehr gut überwintert kein Bienen Verlust.

Meine Schwärmen haben es gern angenommen. Unkompliziert in der Beute hinterlegen

Meine Bienen mögen das❣️