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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Feeding solution for new hives
  • Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 12:13:23 -0400

Chris,

Your terrific posts inspired me to look a little further. A sugar industry trade group, The Sugar Association, formerly The Sugar Research Foundation, has FAQs on its website <here>. These are the folks who should be best placed to know the answers! They say:
  1. Is sugar chemically altered or bleached during processing?

    No, sugar is not chemically altered or bleached during processing. The sugar in your sugar bowl is the same as the sucrose naturally present in the original sugar beet and sugar cane plants, and is also identical to the sucrose in other fruits and vegetables.

    Pure sugar crystals are naturally colorless. No artificial bleaching or whitening is necessary. Molasses, which is naturally present in sugar beet and sugar cane and gives brown sugar its color, is removed from the sugar crystal with water and centrifuging. Carbon filters absorb any remaining colored plant materials.

  2. How does brown sugar differ from white sugar?

    All sugar products in the marketplace differ only in crystal size or molasses content. Molasses adds both color and flavor. The darker the brown sugar, the more molasses it has.

The Imperial Sugar Company has a graphic showing how sugar is refined <here>.

The Sugar Association website explains all the different kinds of commercially-sold sugar <here>. Someone asked about turbinado sugar... the website says:

Turbinado sugar

This sugar is raw sugar which has been partially processed, where only the surface molasses has been washed off. It has a blond color and mild brown sugar flavor, and is often used in tea and other beverages.

It has already been mentioned that we don't want to feed our bees molasses or other indigestibles, especially for overwinter stores. White granulated sugar is the purest form of sucrose that is available and is excellent bee feed.

If anyone is curious about all the different varieties/formulations/sales-names of sugar, take a look at the Sugar Association website.

Randall



On 5/2/2016 10:39 AM, Chris and Lisa Laudeman wrote:
CADTEKLqPdwOkQksNTKLCiiFWyFcKEhkwRkh+rR2pHCfs6uALbg AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">
Hi all,

Just a little fact check: According to Wikipedia, "About 80 percent of sucrose is derived from sugarcane, the rest almost all from sugar beets." (with no reference), and the depending on where you look, decoloriztion is sometimes referred to as "bleaching", but they're not using bleach.

C

On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 10:29 AM, Chris and Lisa Laudeman <chrisandlisa AT laudeman.com> wrote:
BTW Rob,

Granulated sugar isn't bleached. It has been recrystallized (which purifies it) and decolorized (with activated carbon) to removed trace brown stuff (that is not good for bees). Most of what we buy is actually produced from sugar beets these days, not cane, but they both have to be purified.

It is sucrose which is one glucose molecule bonded to one fructose molecule. So we call it a disaccharide (two sugars). High fructose corn syrup is corn sugar (pure glucose from corn starch) that has been partially converted to fructose ("fruit" sugar and the same as in sucrose) by enzymatic reactions. Each enzyme molecule, which is a protein, converts billions of sugar molecules, so very little enzyme is required. Depending on the grade, it is usually around 50% fructose, so the resulting "high" fructose corn syrup is chemically and nutritionally VERY similar to sucrose but NOT quite identical. The molecules are just not bonded together. It's called "high fructose" because corn sugar has no fructose to begin with.

Our bodies and bees break sucrose apart enzymatically to glucose and fructose before further metabolism. Nectar sources contain various mixtures of these sugars and others, but the bees can digest all of them. If you have a cheap source of these PURIFIED sugars, you can feed them to bees. For example, I have pure corn sugar, glucose, which I use in brewing. I could feed it to the bees, but the bottom line is that it's more expensive, and harder to find in a pinch.

The easiest solution (chemistry pun there) for me is to buy cheap granulated sugar. Kroger sells the generic stuff and has 25 lb bags. Check the price. The cheap 5 lb bags are often less per unit than the 25 lb bag.  Unless you have many hives, you really don't need to feed that much anyway.

Feed those bees!

Good luck.

Chris




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