Well, that was a waste of time. I just attempted to make a post. The image file was too large, so the post was redirected to a message informing me of the file size. In the mean time, it saw fit to delete my entire post text, too.
Oh well. Trying again.
I am a new beekeeper, having just started with my first two colonies this past (late) July. I currently have two queenright (10 frame) hives and a queenless (10 frame) hive that I will either buy a queen to introduce, or (preferably) let the girls make their own queen.
My question is regarding 2 mini mating nucs that I purchased a few months back. I didn't bother opening them to look them over, until a week ago. I noticed that both have a small metal "L" shaped queen excluder, to prevent the queen from entering the food chamber. (The excluder is not shown in the image I will attach, below.)
However, if I were to feed them with syrup, I'm sure many of the bees would drown while attempting to consume the syrup. So, I am going to try a fondant (Candipolline Gold, from the UK). But, I am not sure how to proceed with adding it to the nucs. Do I mix it with water (or sugar syrup)? Or, do I just fill the food chamber with the dry mix?
I appreciate any advice regarding how to sort out these nucs.