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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Blair Christian <blair.christian AT gmail.com>
  • To: Vic Nyman <nyman AT mindspring.com>, "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Local source for inverted sugar?
  • Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:52:30 -0500

Hi Vic,

I'm curious about this. So why inverted sugar? On one hand, by
inverting sugar (breaking sucrose (a 2 part sugar) into its 2 parts,
glucose and fructose), you're actually reducing the calories in the
sugar syrup a small amount (by breaking a bond in sucrose). I think
the bees have an enzyme invertase that does this (see "Fat Bees Skinny
Bees"). It's only if that enzyme is lacking that feeding of inverted
sugar would be significantly different? It also looks like you can
make your own inverted sugar from sucrose relatively easily. But at
that point, you're not too far from feeding them fructose directly
which you can buy in big buckets ready to go.

I googled around and saw this:

"Note, Drivert sugar should not be used as a substitute for sugar
syrup feeding, but is an excellent supplement at certain times of the
year"
http://www.bee-outside.com/drivertsugar.aspx

Are you using it to make syrup, fondant, candy board, or just feeding
straight?

I went back to "Fat Bees Skinny Bees" to learn some more, and they say
nectar is primarily sucrose. The bees have enzymes they use during
the ripening process to convert that to fructose and glucose.
However, there are those and other saccharides present in the rest of
the nectar which is not sucrose, which is dependent on the plant.
They also say that the ratio of glucose to fructose is important. If
there is too much glucose, the honey will crystallize rapidly
(apparently some pollinators of canola can have their frames
crystallize before they pull they supers)... So perhaps feeding
invert sugar is more like giving them ripe honey that they will store,
as opposed to a sucrose syrup, which could get them more in a brood
rearing mood and might initiate foraging? Long shot. I don't know
much about all this, but I'm interested in learning more...

My take would be: focus on the colony as a whole by examining their
reserves going into winter. Kim Flottum writes about this. He has
rules of thumb for how much pollen and how much honey going into
winter it will take keep your healthy bees healthy.

Best,
Blair


On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 6:31 PM, Vic Nyman <nyman AT mindspring.com> wrote:
> Happy Holidays Everyone!
>
> Does anyone have a local source for inverted sugar?
>
> I have seen lots of references in the forums for C&H Drivert Sugar and
> Domino Invert Sugar, but I haven't found an outlet in the area. Most of the
> bee supply houses would have shipping charges that exceed the cost of the
> product.
>
> Does anyone have a good source?
>
> Thanks, Vic
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