Sugar candy for the bees

I thought I should feed Olea's hive as well.  It seemed that the way to do so was to use sugar candy.  An online search gave me several recipes for bee candy, all of which involved boiling sugar in water until it was a certain degree.  I could not decide whether to make a fondant (234 degrees) or hard (250 degrees), so I aimed for in between.
First step: a trip to Costco for sugar.

Then I prepared a bunch of paper plates with a thin coat of canola oil.

I put a couple of cups of water in a pot and added lots of sugar.  I did not measure it but I believe it was over five pounds.  It takes a long time for the temperature to reach 240 degrees.

I ladled the hot syrup into the plates and waited for it to cool.

When it had cooled, it was the consistency of sticky jello.  It was then that I read that one has to beat the hot syrup in order to make fondant.  Ah well, it does pay to read instructions.
I decided to experiment with the the sugar gel and yesterday put one in Olea's hive and one into #1.

The plate of gel in #1

A second plate in the top bar hive

Then last night, I scraped all the gel back into a pot and boiled until a bit over 250 degrees and ladled the syrup into oiled plates.  It cooled hard and I was able to remove the discs and stack them in a plastic bag.
I went back today to check on things.  #1 had not done so well, but Olea's had gone to town.

Three bees dead and stuck in the partially granulated gel

Most of the sugar was gone.  They were still at work on the granulated sugar.  There were several bees that were stuck in the sugar and dead or dying

I put some of the hard candy by the opening in #1 but the bees paid it no attention, so I put it on top of the frames beneath the Vivaldi box.

You can also see the Apivar strips held up by nails

About 5 minutes after closing the hive

Since #2 and 3 had been going through the hole to get into the top feeder (remember #1 had an entrance feeder), I put the candy partially over the hole.

A couple of minutes later

I took a look in the window of Olea's and saw many bees running around with pieces of candy in their mandibles.
I think the hard candy is a success.