Feeding my bees

[Bulgakov]

Hi everyone, I need to feed my bees with a light syrup, a fellow bee keeper adds hydrogen peroxide food grade to their syrup, I haven't seen this anywhere in books or magazines, what do you think I should do? Thanks Sam

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ignore him
Where exactly are you?
Why do you need to feed your bees?

 

[JamezF]

Bizarre. Loads of people want dark bees whilst others are trying to bleach theirs...

James

 

[Ian123]

Bizarre. Loads of people want dark bees whilst others are trying to bleach theirs...

James

Ooooooooh that’s good

 

[Bulgakov]

Ignore him
Where exactly are you?
Why do you need to feed your bees?

I am in South Devon, it is a new small colony and they need to feed the brood and draw out comb, I was going to feed them to help them along

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've never heard of anyone adding peroxide to syrup - is he a bit mad or something?
Tell us a little about your colony, where did it come from? how many frames of brood? I wouldn't have thought that any colony would need feeding at the moment.

 

[JamezF]

The only reason I can think of for someone suggesting the addition of hydrogen peroxide to syrup would be as some sort of preservative. Perhaps a bit like thymol? It's not a good thing for mammals to ingest though, and whilst bees have very different digestive systems I'd want to be very sure it wasn't going to cause them harm before I'd go anywhere near it.

I am however half-expecting someone to reveal that it is the latest miracle cure for varroa...

James

 

[Michael Palmer]

Not sure about HP in syrup. I have read of people adding a cup of Clorox to a drum of syrup. I assume to sterilize the syrup. Randy Oliver wrote about it on his site years ago. He tested the syrup a short time after treating (1 day?) and couldn't find any Chlorine ions.

 

[Ian123]

Bleach was once advised to stop mould.

 

[ApiarIAN]

The answer appears to be in here:
Honey Bees (Apis mellifera Hymenoptera: Apidae) Preferentially Avoid Sugar Solutions Supplemented with Field-Relevant Concentrations of Hydrogen Peroxide Despite High Tolerance Limits

 

[Murox]

Hi everyone, I need to feed my bees with a light syrup, a fellow bee keeper adds hydrogen peroxide food grade to their syrup, I haven't seen this anywhere in books or magazines, what do you think I should do? Thanks Sam

Don’t buy into the snake oil hype, peddling “Food-Grade” Hydrogen Peroxide is exploitative, dangerous and grubby. Only the unscrupulous let it anywhere near food these days.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Only the unscrupulous let it anywhere near food these days

and only an idiot would feed it to their bees

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Don’t buy into the snake oil hype, peddling “Food-Grade” Hydrogen Peroxide is exploitative, dangerous and grubby. Only the unscrupulous let it anywhere near food these days.

If you eat anything with a modified starch in it don't be surprised if you find H2O2 has been used to produce the starch. Or Hydrochloric Acid, DEC, Sodium Hypochlorite or a host of other chemicals. We're living in a modern world in which you struggle to avoid industrial processes.

 

[The Poot]

Bleach was once advised to stop mould.

You can inject it to stop Covid too

 

[JamezF]

You can inject it to stop Covid too

Don't you have to let the sunshine in as well?

James