Sugar syrup good or bad!

[Finman]

wow there's some interesting answers here, i'm not ruled by my heart and want to do my best for my bee's, i know there's natural beekeepers out there who don't take honey stores at all and don't use sugar.come forth with your posts pls...

This beekeeping hobby isn't just about monetry gain feeding sugar because we've taken super after super of honey .
@ jbm i'm as carful as i can be when feeding syrup but bee's do get excited when feeding syrup is this not waisted energy??

Where would bee's be without us and our intervention ?? None existent ??

amen

Natural beekeepers= catch and reliese method

 

[Erichalfbee]

@ jbm I'm as carful as I can be when feeding syrup but bee's do get excited when feeding syrup is this not waisted energy??

I always top up my feeders in the evening when bees have stopped flying

Where would bee's be without us and our intervention ?? None existent ??

Presumably thriving but in vastly smaller numbers like they do in The Arnot Forest

https://www.apidologie.org/articles/apido/abs/2007/01/m6063/m6063.html

 

[Podilia]

Hi , I'm coming to the conclusion that syrup is not a good thing to use ..

There are a lot of much worse things around bees destroing their health and our human's health as well: pollution of air and water, agressive methods of agriculture, monocultures, destoyed natural diversity etc. Sugar syrup in my opinion is somewhere in the last place in this long list.

Bee's get so excited they fly out the hive like there's a flow on .

Feed in the evening to avoid that fiesta.

 

[Podilia]

Honey yield depends on pastures. If bees do not get stores enough for winter natural selection does not help.

Honey depends on weather. I think natural selection took place in such mountain regions as Carpathian mountains where local bees were really adapted for bad weather and poor flow. According to the reseach they take the nectar with less % of sugar compare to steppe bees who just ignore such flowers.

Honey is 20 Times more valuable then sugar. That is the Basic of beekeeping. We change bees' winter stores to cheap sugar.

I wish to live like that! How about "honey is 2 times more valuable then sugar"?

bees do well on common sucrose (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁) and honey for energy, other nutrients bees get from pollen

so why people eat honey not sugar syrup? Our Asian collegues have learned how to make different kind of honey which is not honey in reality. The market is overwhelmed with this fake "product", downing the prices even more down. Real honey contains many other useful elements, we know it from the books. If people need them (in my country honey is something like medicine - an old and a bit absurd tradition), than why bees can live without them, only with a syrup and pollen.

 

[Finman]

Honey depends on weather. I think natural selection took place in such mountain regions as Carpathian mountains where local bees were really adapted for bad weather and poor flow. According to the reseach they take the nectar with less % of sugar compare to steppe bees who just ignore such flowers.

I wish to live like that! How about "honey is 2 times more valuable then sugar"?
so why people eat honey not sugar syrup? Our Asian collegues have learned how to make different kind of honey which is not honey in reality. The market is overwhelmed with this fake "product", downing the prices even more down. Real honey contains many other useful elements, we know it from the books. If people need them (in my country honey is something like medicine - an old and a bit absurd tradition), than why bees can live without them, only with a syrup and pollen.

In Finland people consume on average 30 kg sugar per year and honey under 1 kg per year. That is why.

In Ukraine people consume sugar 40 kg per year per person.

 

[mbc]

Bees do well with the security of being left with adequate stores of their own honey no doubt, but in my experience this is far outweighed by the boost in moral and activity given them by a syrup feed at the right time.
The state of play in my own area at the moment is that there is still plenty of pollen about but little nectar, a carbohydrate feed helps them divert better foraging numbers to the pollen/protein and results in better vitality, nest building and general vigour of a colony.
Americans talk of getting best "bang for your buck " when putting resources into hives and I don't believe there's a better time to get best bang for your buck by syrup feeding bees in the UK than right now.

 

[bingevader]

Wow there's some interesting answers here, I'm not ruled by my heart and want to do my best for my bee's, I know there's natural beekeepers out there who don't take honey stores at all and don't use sugar.come forth with your posts pls...

This beekeeping hobby isn't just about monetry gain feeding sugar because we've taken super after super of honey .
@ jbm I'm as carful as I can be when feeding syrup but bee's do get excited when feeding syrup is this not waisted energy??

Where would bee's be without us and our intervention ?? None existent ??

I've been called a "haver of bees", but I wouldn't call myself a natural beekeeper.
The majority of the bees I "have" are in a school (an Ecoschool with a platinum green flag ), so it's more about education than the honey.
We practice swarm control and treat for varroa, but we only take honey when there's a surplus and don't feed unless the bees are in danger of starvation.
There have been years when we haven't taken any honey at all but we've never had to feed when we've taken some.
We certainly wouldn't let the bees starve, but when we do feed syrup or fondant it's got to be fairtrade!

 

[Curly green finger's]

I've been called a "haver of bees", but I wouldn't call myself a natural beekeeper.
The majority of the bees I "have" are in a school (an Ecoschool with a platinum green flag ), so it's more about education than the honey.
We practice swarm control and treat for varroa, but we only take honey when there's a surplus and don't feed unless the bees are in danger of starvation.
There have been years when we haven't taken any honey at all but we've never had to feed when we've taken some.
We certainly wouldn't let the bees starve, but when we do feed syrup or fondant it's got to be fairtrade!

Fair trade CANE sugar I hope!
Bed time I'll reply more tomorrow cheers.

 

[Beefriendly]

I can tell you from experience that bees shown no preference for fair trade/cane or beet sugar. The slack Alice's will take any of them in abundance.
How dare they show no sign of preference for ethically sourced sugar's....

 

[Murox]

Wow there's some interesting answers here, I'm not ruled by my heart and want to do my best for my bee's, I know there's natural beekeepers out there who don't take honey stores at all and don't use sugar.come forth with your posts pls...

This beekeeping hobby isn't just about monetry gain feeding sugar because we've taken super after super of honey .
@ jbm I'm as carful as I can be when feeding syrup but bee's do get excited when feeding syrup is this not waisted energy??

Where would bee's be without us and our intervention ?? None existent ??

Think about why we/you feed syrup - its to stimulate them basically. Fondant tends not to excite in the same way, they just eat and or store it. Put a measured quantity fondant into a rapid feeder see how long it takes them to get through it - then do the same with syrup - which is finished first ?

 

[Beefriendly]

.
Americans talk of getting best "bang for your buck " when putting resources into hives and I don't believe there's a better time to get best bang for your buck by syrup feeding bees in the UK than right now.

Mine are still bringing in Balsam nectar and pollen and working well. My region of North Yorkshire has a good forecast for the next week.... Whilst I'm not anticipating taking any more supers off....I do wish people would tailor their feeding advice to their own region rather than suggest it applies nationally.
But wherever you are..... if your hives are light...suggest some feed. It's a judgement call not a universal directive.

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

This is, ultimately, a pointless thread.

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[bingevader]

I do wish people would tailor their feeding advice to their own region rather than suggest it applies nationally.

Except, of course, if you are leaving enough honey.

But wherever you are..... if your hives are light...suggest some feed. It's a judgement call not a universal directive.

Absolutely!

 

[Walrus]

Hi , I'm coming to the conclusion that syrup is not a good thing to use

Has a conclusion now been reached?!

If they need it, feed it. You said yourself that you want the best for your bees.

 

[Finman]

This is, ultimately, a pointless thread.

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It surely is.

 

[Stiffy]

Mine are still bringing in Balsam nectar and pollen and working well. My region of North Yorkshire has a good forecast for the next week.... Whilst I'm not anticipating taking any more supers off....I do wish people would tailor their feeding advice to their own region rather than suggest it applies nationally.
But wherever you are..... if your hives are light...suggest some feed. It's a judgement call not a universal directive.

Although ivy is well into flower here, there is little else and I find feeding now dilutes the stored ivy so it stores far better. But, I live in the far SW and others will find their conditions are very different.
S

 

[Curly green finger's]

Has a conclusion now been reached?!

If they need it, feed it. You said yourself that you want the best for your bees.

Indeed!

 

[Curly green finger's]

This is, ultimately, a pointless thread.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Why jonny ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

For one thing, you have not furnished one scrap of hard evidence to back your conclusion that feeding is bad.

 

[mbc]

Mine are still bringing in Balsam nectar and pollen and working well. My region of North Yorkshire has a good forecast for the next week.... Whilst I'm not anticipating taking any more supers off....I do wish people would tailor their feeding advice to their own region rather than suggest it applies nationally.
But wherever you are..... if your hives are light...suggest some feed. It's a judgement call not a universal directive.

Ok, back it up, where in the UK would you get better value from feeding syrup some other time than now?