Easy Sugar Bricks for Honey bees

 Easy sugar bricks for you to make for your honey bees to help sustain them during the cold Michigan winter months.

The finished product of sugar bricks. The larger ones made in foil roaster pan are about 3 1/2 pounds, the smaller ones around two pounds. See below for directions on how to make.

I've had a lot of questions about sugar bricks so here is a picture demonstration.

Ingredients needed:
Water 3/4 cup
Vinegar 1/4 cup
Honey B Healthy or equivalent. 1 tsp
Granulated Sugar 10 pounds

Items needed:
5 gallon bucket
Drill
Paint mixer paddle to attach to drill
Foil pans
Knife
Measuring cup
Teaspoon

Many ask what type of sugar to use.  I've heard arguments on both sides whether it should be beet or cane, organic or non organic, etc... I use white granulated cane sugar from Costco.    A 50 pound bag is $20 bucks. So if I make my bricks to be about 2 pounds each, that is 25 bricks, about 80 cents a brick.
It is worth the time and money to make the sugar bricks for your bees. It only takes a couple of minutes to pop one on to the top bars above the cluster. Yes, you can take the top cover off in the winter in cold temps without hurting them. Just do it quickly, less than a minute or two.  Even if they have honey stores all around them, it may be too cold for the cluster to move to the full honey frames. A brick on top of the cluster will get them through until temps increase again and allow them to move. Don't let your bees starve!  It would be a shame if they survived viral infections from varroa,  pesiticide exposure and other challenges they face to die of starvation when it could have been easily prevented.  Not to mention the cost of a few sugar bricks is way less than having to purchase new bees in the spring because yours are all dead.

Bucket to mix the sugar, drill, paint mixer paddle. I mix it up in the garage.

3/4 cup water (sorry that is a 4 cup measuring cup  that is why it doesn't look like 3/4 cup) add 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 tsp Honey B Healthy into it.

After you've added the 1/4 vinegar to 3/4 cup water, add a teaspoon of Honey B Healthy. The Honey B Healthy is a feeding stimulant with essential oils (mainly spearmint and lemongrass).  It is not essential to making the bricks so if you don't have it that is OK. I like the smell, but according to my husband it is nauseating and overpowering :-)  And it will fill your house with the aroma while you're baking the bricks.

I don't mix the whole 10 pounds of sugar all at once. I use 5 pounds first and about half the liquid mixture, I blend that up very well first and then add the remaining 5 pounds  of sugar and last half of the mixture.  Make sure you mix it up thoroughly, about 3-5 minutes with the drill.

Mixing for 3-5 minutes with paint mixer attached to power drill.

Tinfoil pans to pour mixture into when finished mixing. I use a variety of sizes.

Dump the mixture from the bucket into your tins.

Use your hands or a rolling pin to really compact the mixture into the pan, making sure it is dense.

If I use a larger tin, I score the mixture with a knife so I can break it apart easier when it is done baking. When transferring the pans into the oven, the mixture may get a few cracks in it, pat these down or roll then back out so it is nice and uniform with no cracks. Set your oven on low 140-180 degrees  and bake for 5-6 hours. Remove and let cool. Place on hives when needed.

Your oven temp for the bricks should be around 140-180 degrees Farenheit.

Honeybees Wintering in Michigan

Our first west MI winter winds and snow have arrived!!  All the hives are wrapped in their winter garb of tar paper. I wrap to cover the seam  in between the 2 deep boxes. I'm sure they probably have it propolized well, but just in case.  A little extra wind break I figure. For me, essentials to overwintering are in no particular order;
1. Ventilation
2. Upper entrance
3. Food stores
4. Location
5. Keeping critters out.

See pics below for explanations on overwintering honeybees in West MI. 

Honeybees on a milder day digging in to their sugar brick. Because most of my colonies are in single deeps going into winter, they are already at the "top" of the 2 deep brood boxes. The box on the bottom has 2-3 frames of drawn comb and frames of foundation for the bees to expand in the spring. I know it seems backwards, but it works. Because many are already up, I put sugar bricks in early if I see them near the top. If it's too cold for them to navigate over to another frame of honey, the brick will be right above them as a food source if needed.

First snowfall this winter season in West MI, December 7. I love this yard because the Pine tress serve as an excellent natural wind break!

I have an upper entrance hole in each hive so when the bottom entrances get covered with snow, there is still a way for the bees to exit. It also helps with ventilation. Again, notice the pines behind the hives, great natural windbreak.

This just happened to be the best place for me to put bees in our backyard and the cage was already there. No skunks will be scratching at the front door of these hives this winter. It also acted as a barrier this summer so the bees always flew up first before heading out instead of straight across our yard. They rarely flew through the holes in the chain link.

All hives in this yard in Hopkins, MI alive! We have many months to go though before pollen is available and spring greets us with warm breezes. Last year, the Silver Maple in our area bloomed on February 22 and bees were bringing in pollen!! So three and half to four months is all, that doesn't sound so long to have to wait :-)

This is a dead out hive that has been getting robbed out.  Wanted to show the screen board here with fiber board in it. It provides ventilation as the longer sides provide a seam for air to flow through. See picture below.  The telescoping cover goes over this. I have bottom board, 2 deeps, queen excluder to set sugar brick on, shallow, winter screen and then telescoping cover.

Dead out hive. Just wanted you to see screen board without the fiber board in it. The screen board, replaces the inner cover during the winter. Fiber board sits on top of the screen to help deflect warm air out to the sides where it is vented. See pic below.

The open slit between shallow box and winter screen allows warm air produced by the hive to escape so condensation doesn't build up on underside of the telescoping cover and drip down on to the bees. The slits are on both long sides of the screen board.

Baking more sugar bricks. I have made bricks many ways and there is no "one and only " way to do it. I use a variety of methods and the bees don't really seem to care. They take it down either way. A simple recipe is 10 pounds of sugar to 3/4 cup hot water, 1/4 vinegar and a teaspoon of honeybee healthy.  I mix it in a 5 gallon bucket with paint mixer on the end of a drill. I dump it into pans, press it or roll it with a rolling pin so its compacted and bake it at 140-160 degrees F. for 4-5 hours. Place in hives when ready.