Doing the maths

[nonstandard]

I have been offered Ambrosia liquid feed at £1.25 /kg to save me doing the maths and probably getting it wrong can anyone tell me how much dissolved sugar at 2:1 is in a kilo of winter feed

 

[For want of a better word]

in 2:1 granulated sugar syrup (2lbs sugar to one pint of water as it is an old Imperial recipe!)
................... 80%

Ambrosia is some kind of witches brew that I am lead to believe has no sucrose..... never used the stuff as I like the endless toil of stewing up countless gallons of sugar, and I have to get my monies worth from the BIG BURCO BOILER..... does mean getting up early or staying up late to benefit from economy 7 electrik tho!

Thread some time ago about how bees spend less energy using fructose as opposed to sucrose as the enzyme used to catalyse sucrose requires energy to run it... load of poppycock as far as I can see... just an excuse for lazy beekeeperers to use inverted sucrose and a marketing ruse by the invert suppliers!

All I.M.O.V.L.E of course before the forum bullies and know it alls start slagging me of!

 

[itma]

Imperial 2:1 is about 62% sugar by weight.
Ambrosia is about 73% sugars by weight.
Honey is about 80% sugars by weight.

To put half the overwinter target (ie 10kg) of stores into a hive (assume for the moment 100% conversion) needs about 11kg of Ambrosia.
Wow, that would be REALLY EXPENSIVE compared to buying 8kg of sugar (on a similar 100% conversion), wouldn't it?
About £13.75 per hive, versus £6.50 ...

Just think of how many replacement nucs you can buy in the Spring with all that money you are saving!

 

[For want of a better word]

Wow, that would be REALLY EXPENSIVE compared to buying 8kg of sugar (on a similar 100% conversion), wouldn't it?


I HAVE A TENDENCY TO OVER FEED...... somehow I seem to remember the figure of 48 lbs of sugar for each colony.
By sugar I mean the white granulated..... Sucrose....
not fructose, hexose, glucose, or any other 'ose!!!

​

 

[itma]

I hope that the bees will meet their daily needs and put on at the very least half their winter needs from the local ivy.
Accordingly, I'm only topping them up.
And only using commercial syrup to top-up the top-up if need be. Probably less than 5kg/colony.
And I think its very worthwhile for that. They can take it fast, and late.

 

[herefordshirehoney]

I hope that the bees will meet their daily needs and put on at the very least half their winter needs from the local ivy.
Accordingly, I'm only topping them up.
And only using commercial syrup to top-up the top-up if need be. Probably less than 5kg/colony.
And I think its very worthwhile for that. They can take it fast, and late.

Bee's are working ivy here now - just as i brought some sugar too with the aim to put some on the weekend think i'll put some on anyway to be safe! 1 litre of water to 2kg if i remember but always forget!

 

[Finman]

.
10 hives.....200 kg sugar equal 250 kg ambrosia....

in Lidl UK 72p per 1kg pack x 200 kg---> £ 144

Ambrosia 250 kg x 1.25 ---> £ 313

Kidding? 120% more expencive = £ 170 extra


If you feed with honey the hive, that is øæ# expencive...

200 kg honey x £ 6 = £ 1200..........£ 1000 is money

.
.

 

[nonstandard]

Thanks for the replies, I obviously didn't have my brain in gear if I'm buying sugar at 68p/kg from Costco it has to be way cheaper than buying ambrosia at £1.25 kg.

My next question is has anyone done a conversion between the dry weight of the sugar and the wet volume of syrup i.e. 1 pint of 2:1 syrup contains x kg of sugar or even better 1 pint of 2:1 syrup converts to x kg of stores?

 

[sipa]

Who really wants to blend 200kg of sugar, and put it in containers ?

I can't be bothererd anymore, to busy with the bees. Yes it costs more, but time is money !

 

[alanf]

I'm buying sugar at 68p/kg from Costco it has to be way cheaper than buying ambrosia at £1.25 kg.

At 1.25 per kg of Ambrosia you are paying 1.72 per kg dry weight of sugars.

My next question is has anyone done a conversion between the dry weight of the sugar and the wet volume of syrup i.e. 1 pint of 2:1 syrup contains x kg of sugar or even better 1 pint of 2:1 syrup converts to x kg of stores?

Sugar, Ambrosia and Honey are all sold and measured by weight. Why would you take metric weights of sugar, make them up to syrup then measure it in imperial pints before converting back to metric weight? Actually, how much sugar you can get in solution is temperature dependent whatever the units, but a litre (1,75 pints) of saturated sucrose syrup at 20C contains around 1 kg of sugar. It's easier to think of it as weight all the way through. If 4 hives are short of 20 kg of honey, make up 16kg of sugar to syrup and divide it between them.

 

[oliver90owner]

I can't be bothererd anymore, to busy with the bees. Yes it costs more, but time is money !

If you were clever enough you could pay someone fifty quid to do it for you - and make an extra hundred and fifty quid.

All assuming you pay that much for yours.

 

[Dave /Oscroft]

Ambrosia

Ive just fed 8 colonies with 8 x 12.5kg's of Ambrosia @ £1.20/kilo, they took it down as fast as you could give it to them, how much is left now I don't know, some feel quite light ! so I may have to resort to S/S or fondant if it gets late anyway. With all the wasps that have been about could have been feeding just as many wasps as bees !. Looks like a quick inspection come up at the weekendor sooner if I get chance.
Dave W

 

[Bob Bee]

Our local Association buys in bulk and we pay 80p ltr for *ambrosia* . Sugar at the local cash and carry is just 70p kilo.

I use sugar for the bulk of feeding both winter and a bit of spring/new colony feeding, but I do buy some invert syrup as it seems to store better and I like having some on tap for emergencies or small amounts, so I don't have to always mix it up.
The sugar syrup is storing better than it used to now I put some thymol in the winter feed.
No doubt in my mind that the sugar syrup is still half the price, but many people around me are convinced its not, talking about about how much you need to create a lb of stores etc as well as lots of dubious "its better for the bees" or they don't have to evaporate it.
It does sound a lot like marketing speak and deliberate confusing, mixing up volume, weight, metric, imperial etc to throw you off the scent. A local bee farmer spent 25mins recalculating his figures on his phone calculator to try and convince me it was CHEAPER than using sugar.