Candy Plug

The white candy plug replaces the cork in the queen bee cage. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Queen Bee Box Candy Plug

The tiny boxes queen honey bees are shipped in are not all the same. It’s why we advise our beekeeping students to check the boxes to make sure the queen bee and her entourage have food to nourish them before they are released into their new home.

Some suppliers include both a candy plug or some sort on one side of the box. That candy plug is what feeds the queen bee and her attending worker bees while they live inside the box. Some “plugs’ are made out of sugar cane sugar and has to be kept moist with a daily application of a drop of water so bees can eat the sugar.

Another way to make the candy plug is to use miniature marshmallows.

I prefer making my own out of confectioner’s sugar and honey.

The trick is to thoroughly mix confectioner’s sugar into the honey. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To make this candy plug, start with a few drops of honey that you start mixing with confectioner’s sugar.

Don’t mix it in the palm of your hand; the heat from the friction will warm up the honey and make it runny. A cold surface is better.

Keep working sugar and honey mixture until it’s very dense. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Keep folding the confectioner’s sugar into the honey until it is the consistency of a bread dough.

Don’t get discouraged, it will take time and patience but you will get there.

Once the candy plug is ready, you can store in a container in the refrigerator if you don’t need to immediately use it.

Charlotte