Candy Board Overwintering Topper

This overwintering topper is the bee’s knees! Combining a candy board and insulation in one, our overwintering topper solves multiple problems. Our unique design allows bees to access the top of the candy via each end, as well as from below through the 1/4” hardware cloth.  Includes a sheet of 3/4” foam insulation board and a sheet of Reflectix to keep the bees from being able to access the foam and chew it. The insulation helps prevent condensation from freezing and building up on the lid and then thawing and raining down on the bees. 

Our design lends itself to the condensing hive theory, which shows that insulation on the top of the hive causes moisture to condense on the hive walls instead of the lid to later rain down on the bees after freezing and thawing cycles. With no ventilation they use less energy to heat the colony, consume resources at a lower rate so their stores last longer, and the extra CO2 that remains in the hive helps keep them in a more dormant state. Bees have easy access to the candy through each end as well as pass through the hardware cloth if they want to. These are stout, and our middle brace could even allow you to easily fill the cavity with two different foods for the bees, candy on one side and fondant on the other, etc. 

For those that don’t offer candy for emergency food and prefer the mountain camp style feeding, we still think these are a great option for you. You still get the benefit of the insulation and you can lay newspaper on the hardware cloth and pour in dry sugar instead of directly on the frames. The advantage of the dry sugar on newspaper on the hardware cloth over directly on the frames is clear when it’s winter time and you have an unusually warm week and want to check a few frames to see how they are doing, it will be hard to inspect that hive with hard but crumbly sugar sitting on top of the frames and in the way. Our overwintering topper allows you pull that sugar off with the topper once you get that unseasonably warm weekend and want to check on your colonies and then put it right back on without creating a mess. 

We think you’ll like our unique overwintering toppers and your bees will too. When priming and painting these, we recommend including the ledge the insulation rests on as some moisture may collect there.