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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Chris and Lisa Laudeman <chrisandlisa AT laudeman.com>
  • To: Jeff Bollinger <jeff.bollinger AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: OCBA <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] honey vs. syrup
  • Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:25:39 -0500

Hi Jeff,

As far as sugar purity goes, even the cheapest stuff should be very pure sucrose.  It has been recrystallized, and if it was not clean it would be off-white or brown.  They might add anti-caking agents (like corn starch or mineral salts like calcium phosphate), but you should be able to check that, and it should be listed on the bag.  They might actually not be bad for the bees.

I try to end up leaving any partially capped or half filled frames in one super for the hive at the end of the season and just try to make sure they have emptied that before I start collecting during the spring nectar flow.  I end up not having to feed much or at all by the time the maples are blooming. . .like now!  Got to watch out for the empty space in the super as the beetles like that.

I like your rationale and approach.

Chris

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 11:01 AM, Jeff Bollinger <jeff.bollinger AT gmail.com> wrote:

I've been feeding our bees heavily over the last several weeks and its
getting expensive!  15lbs of white sugar is about 3 days of food for two
hives and they are really eating it up.  However thinking about buying
this crappy Food Lion sugar (and wondering about its
processing/additives, etc.)  I'm wondering if there's a way/method that
can be used to avoid feeding sugar syrup altogether for the hobbyist
beekeeper.

I was thinking maybe instead of collecting this Spring's honey harvest
for ourselves, we freeze the whole super (after removing bees of course)
and then save it for the next feeding season.  I can't imagine it would
be much different than a hive-top feeder (which we're using now) with
all the associated advantages/disadvantages (like robbing,
cluster-bound, etc.)

I'm curious to hear opinions/predictions on if this approach would work
in removing the white sugar dependency from the bees' diet in the
summer, late fall, and winter.  Other than not harvesting honey, what
other issues would you predict to occur trying this method?

Thanks!
Jeff
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