Syrup “honey”

[Tony Slater]

I’ve been feeding my bees 2:1 sugar-to-water syrup. They’ve taken down a lot. I was inspecting a couple of hives today and was reminded that there is little difference if any in in appearance between processed and stored nectar, ie “honey”, and processed and stored syrup ie “sugar hobey”. What is the difference? By the time the syrup is stored the sucrose in the sugar has been broken down (I assume) into fructose and glucose by the action of invertase, as with nectar. The bees will evaporate the water from the syrup to get it to the right concentration, as they do with nectar. And the syrup would contain hydrogen peroxide from the action of glucose oxidase. All that’s missing from the “sugar honey“ are the minute quantities of polyphenols from the source plants of the nectar (although sugar beet are themselves rich in polyphenols). Perhaps a blueberry in each jar of “sugar honey” would make up for the lack of polyphenols.

Has anybody tried eating “sugar honey” from their own hives. Is it any good? (By they I know it is illegal to describe sugar honey as “honey”.)

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bland tasting
Doesn’t taste anything like honey
It’s stored syrup