The Next Dilemma

[Finman]

If you take ALL the honey and expect bees to survive a long winter feeding just on plain sucrose without all the pollen, antibiotics and other constituents of honey that they've stored for their survival then don't be surprised if you do have weak colonies at the end of the winter.
Sugar feeding should be a contingency feed, not a norm, IMHO.

Sugar/sucrose is a norm. It is rare that a beekeeper overwinter with honey.

Antibiotics... What? How it helps wintering?, can you tell?

If sucrose kills in winter, no one would use it.

 

[Finman]

.. Tate & best beet sugar usually.

How do you know what is best beet Sugar? Who has measured it? I have not even seen beet Sugar in supermarket.

 

[Stevie Day]

Most white sugar consumed in the UK & Europe is from sugar beet. This has been the case since 1880 in mainland Europe.

http://www.sugarnutrition.org.uk/history-of-sugar.aspx

With my hives, I'll take honey from the supers & leave that in the brood box to the bees. Then feed with sugar syrup for the winter.

 

[Finman]

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Yeah. I saw a Sugar report which says that Sugar markets are strictly controlled in EU. In Europe 80% of Sugar is from beet. Globally 80% is from cane.

 

[pargyle]

How do you know what is best beet Sugar? Who has measured it? I have not even seen beet Sugar in supermarket.

Get a grip ... it's a figure of speech .. Tate & Lyle's British sugar is nearly all made from sugar beet ... my bees get fed with it when they need it. Although as I run 14 x 12 frames they have, so far, overwintered on brood box honey (probably mostly ivy as I have a lot of it in the garden) - I have always offered them a top up of 2:1 in Autumn and have not lost a colony yet.

I do think that bees store honey for their winter food and if they can, mainly, overwinter on honey then I am happy that they are getting whatever it is that they put into the honey that they want for their winter consumption. Nothing wrong with sugar ... just that honey is better .. IMO anyway.

 

[Finman]

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I have wintered my hives with mere sugar 53 years. And so do other beekeepers in Finland. Our winter is long and severe. And bees do well with mere sugar 10 months.

Professional beekeepers have not afford to use honey as winter food.

It is same as you have cows and you feed milk to calves.

That home science....
Ok, what I learned. I feed best cane sugar to my bees, the the reason to best sugar is cheapest price in Lidl.
.

 

[Eyeman]

After all the A/S and now the uniting I'm left with close to 40 capped brood frames of stores. At the end of the season all supers will come off and any colony needing extra stores will get one of the capped brood frames. Any remain brood frames will have the honey extracted.

 

[mbc]

Sorry, but this is just not true. Research is starting to show that eating sugar has a very different effect on gene expression compared with honey.

Now it's not yet saying that bees are disadvantaged by having sugar, but it's not as simple as thinking that all sugar sources are equal.

http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140717/srep05726/full/srep05726.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130501132051.htm

All sugar sources certainly aren't equal, bees respond very differently to stored sugar (honey) and an external source ie nectar or feeding.
Capitol reserves give confidence and security whereas income triggers a more proactive response, bees like balance so when fed a glut of carbohydrates they will seek to redress this balance by going out and foraging more protein. Taking their honey and feeding can have a very positive action on colonies, but don't let basic bee biology cloud any vision you may have of the benefits of leaving colonies honey bound and static all being for their own good, it may be better for them sometimes, stopped clocks are right twice a day.

 

[Finman]

bees like balance so when fed a glut of carbohydrates they will seek to redress this balance by going out and foraging more protein..

When I feed Winter Sugar, our nature has not any more pollen. And feeding is quick that hives do not start again brood rearing. Feeding takes one week with double brood and 2 days with one brood.