Candy Boards

This week I have been continuing to feed the bees with a 1:1 sugar solution, but with the cold weather, they have not been using as much, so decided to made some candy boards.  I hunted up some recipes, picked apart the reviews and settled on this one: 5 pounds of sugar, 1/3 TBSP of cidar vinegar, and 1 cup of water.  Bring water and vinegar to a boil, then slowly add and stir the sugar until it's all in.  Raise the heat to 250 degrees F at the border between firm ball and hard ball, then turn off the heat and stir until it drops to 200 degrees and pour into the boards.  My boards are made from 1/4 inch chipboard cut 16.25X20 inches so they fit my hive boxes.  I then cut 2x4 pieces into 1.75X1 inch strips to made the sides.  I can easily made a double batch and put 10 pounds of sugar in each candy board.  My second board I tried getting to hard ball, but it didn't work that well; I boiled out too much water and it's is a bit granular on the surface.  I then placed them on the hives and I'll check in a week or so to see how the bees like them.  I plan on making another set of candy boards to keep in the ready if I need to swap them out.