Sugar Dusting. Yes or No?

[Finman]

I agree, how many people have been attacked by sharks sprinkled with icing sugar? I would guess none. so it proves how effective sugar shaking is!

We can vote about this

 

[user 20528]

Don't you think the bees will not capitalise on this 'free food' you're throwing at them, gather it up, and store it?
I suggest you invest in a decent book on beekeeping and spend some time reading it and learning about bees.

To some extent possibly. But if there is garlic powder in it, I am not sure if it will be as nice as nectar.

 

[Finman]

When the bees clean of the sugar it falls down. Unless you are a bad beekeeper and there is a very strong draft going up it will not get into the supers. If it does, it would be only a very minimal amount that would have no effect on the honey.

But I am not goig to ask, why you put sugar dust into your hives?

 

[oliver90owner]

Dani,

I would prefer you melted ice, rather than close the thread

 

[Erichalfbee]

Dani,

I would prefer you melted ice, rather than close the thread

Yes it’s quite entertaining but considering he’s posted nowhere else ( thank God) he’s either a bot or a troll. What do you think?

 

[Erichalfbee]

But why you put sugar dust into your hives?

Don’t ask!

 

[Murox]

Intriguing how opinion and dare I say fashion changes, Khalil Hamdan, following the techniques of a Dr. Kamran Fakhimzadeh, University of Helsinki, Finland in 2000, declares plainly that icing sugar dusting “has no adverse effect on adult bees and the capped brood, and the sugar particles do not enter the spiracles and their tracheal ducts in the treated bees. The technique can be used at any time, even during a honey flow, and as often as needed...” he goes on to say that “Formic and oxalic acids are strong and toxic, result in queen loss, hurt the brood a bit and leave a residue and that “Formic and oxalic acids cannot be used when it is warm or hot, whereas powdered sugar...” concluding that “The method is in practice in the USA, Germany and Ireland, and most who have used it say it works.”

I prefer to follow more informed science rather than 20 year old dodgy papers languishing on the internet.

 

[user 20297]

You don’t have to do things yourself to know they don’t work.

I know, that's why I'm keen for @Ice509 to conduct a structured trial of the technique.

The poll is only asking to see how many people in the forum are using sugar dusting, not how effective.

Well done for re-stating that point that seems to have become lost in the tsunami of ridicule. I don't use that technique, I don't think I would do in the future, but I'm interested in your results.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The poll is only asking to see how many people in the forum are using sugar dusting, not how effective.

It's a forum - the whole point of a forum is to ask a question to encourage debate.
You got that, what did you expect?

 

[Finman]

Don’t ask!

Ok

 

[Murox]

But I am not goig to ask, why you put sugar dust into your hives?

Might bee because a Dr. Kamran Fakhimzadeh, University of Helsinki, Finland in 2000 gave it a positive boost 20 or more years ago.

 

[Nige.Coll]

We are not dusting the supers. Any honey it gets into is in the brood box and gets eaten by the bees!

By the same logic If i feed sugar syrup only into the brood box it won't end up in supers.
Bees never move stores up at all do they ?
Naive at best.

You're not the first to waffle about icing sugar it's been going around for decades and been shown to be ineffective by multiple research papers.
I hope you got the right kind, the one without the anti-caking agent.
Another way of looking at it is you are producing food for human consumption, putting anything into the colony that is not licensed is illegal.

Garlic infused honey may sell well though. Nasty Ivy honey is popular in some countries.

 

[Finman]

Might bee because a Dr. Kamran Fakhimzadeh, University of Helsinki, Finland in 2000 gave it a positive boost 20 or more years ago.

Yes, it was. But no one in Finland used it.
. At same time European Union Working Group created modern systems about oxalic acid, thymol and about formic acid. The group started 1998.

 

[user 20528]

Yes it’s quite entertaining but considering he’s posted nowhere else (thank God) he’s either a bot or a troll. What do you think?

Sorry?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sorry?

It’s a simple question. And I meant no disrespect.
Are you an internet application running
an automated task or have you posted an intentionally provocative idea here to cause disorder?
It was aimed at over90owner really.

 

[user 20528]

It’s a simple question. And I meant no disrespect.
Are you an internet application running
an automated task or have you posted an intentionally provocative idea here to cause disorder?
It was aimed at over90owner really.

OK, thanks for clarifying.

 

[plain_hunt]

Is it cheaper?

You shouldn’t be doing any treatment or not on cost alone. That’s not an effective method for treating anything.

 

[plain_hunt]

i don’t think you do. Do you think it‘s wise for a new beekeeper with one or two hives to start developing their own cures or starting to try breeding their own resilient strain of bees?

Learn the basics first ( which will take more than two years in almost every case) then when you have sufficient experience and enough hives to make the results meaningful try these things out.

I was agreeing with you that they need to learn the basics, get some experience of what they are doing and what the bees do, and then make experiments. Thats what you said, and I agree wholeheartedly with that. I do not encourage new beekeepers to try things out before they understand the basics, and more, of what they are doing with, and in, a colony.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well time to wind this up. Any last requests?

 

[Ian123]

I dusted my way...........