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

 

[Penninetrader]

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”.)

What if this is a blend of nectar and sugar syrup at unknown ratios

 

[boywonder]

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

I disagree with some of that comment, Dani.

I am usually militant about not feeding at any other point than autumn. In fact, I'm paranoid about getting syrup in my supers... So much so that when I did do a small amount of stimulative feeding to two colonies away from my production hives this year (in order to use these solely for queen rearing), I used food dye to colour the syrup.

One of these colonies processed and stored said syrup ... leaving me with two supers of blue 'honey' - one of which I extracted (in order to be able to feed it back in autumn).

Of course, I tried it. Yes, it was a little bland, and it was very sweet, but it did taste of honey.

A couple of months ago I recall reading an article in Beecraft written by Willie Robson, where he was explaining the role of in-season feeding, and accepting, it seems, that a good proportion of the extracted crop would contain processed syrup (which I found to be a surprising admission).

I also recall reading about one international honey show (was it something to do with Apimonda?) where a high proportion of exhibits (presumably submitted by genuine, earnest beekeepers) were found to contain refined sugars.

.... By which, I think I'm trying to make the argument that stored syrups can pass the taste test ... to at least some degree.

 

[Penninetrader]

I disagree with some of that comment, Dani.

I am usually militant about not feeding at any other point than autumn. In fact, I'm paranoid about getting syrup in my supers... So much so that when I did do a small amount of stimulative feeding to two colonies away from my production hives this year (in order to use these solely for queen rearing), I used food dye to colour the syrup.

One of these colonies processed and stored said syrup ... leaving me with two supers of blue 'honey' - one of which I extracted (in order to be able to feed it back in autumn).

Of course, I tried it. Yes, it was a little bland, and it was very sweet, but it did taste of honey.

A couple of months ago I recall reading an article in Beecraft written by Willie Robson, where he was explaining the role of in-season feeding, and accepting, it seems, that a good proportion of the extracted crop would contain processed syrup (which I found to be a surprising admission).

I also recall reading about one international honey show (was it something to do with Apimonda?) where a high proportion of exhibits (presumably submitted by genuine, earnest beekeepers) were found to contain refined sugars.

.... By which, I think I'm trying to make the argument that stored syrups can pass the taste test ... to at least some degree.

I tend to smell the honey to detect pollen, funny thing is that the jar I use personally I refill from larger containers and the contents always pick up the smell from that personal jar. I recovered honey from a colony that had been abandoned due to the death of their keeper. It was a blend of 5 years with taste and smell that lingers on in my personal storage jars. None of my crops come even close to their vintage imo