In a message dated 2/15/99 3:55:42 PM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
 
> What was most surprising was the colony condition.  The honey fed bees had
>  larger clusters, more brood, and were very visibly more quiet and less
>  nervous, or less stressed, though I'm uncomfortable with that term.  I've
>  made the same observations many times in commercial colonies over the
years.
>  When you pencil the economics closely I don't think it pays to feed sugar,
>  especially today with all the other negative impacts on our bees.
 
    How carefully did you match the hives. Were the heavy hives, heavy because
they made more to begin with (healthier bees)? Did you test the light ones for
tracheal mites/other stress diseases? Did you check the pollen in the light
ones for pesticide contamination? Were the light hives allowed to starve, even
for a few days? How about their behavior before feeding?
 
    I've seen beekeepers (well, okay, I've done it myself) take off supers and
NOT check the weight of the brood chamber, because they were planning to
return with feed. However, when they return, a week later, a few hives, which
happened to have NO honey in the brood chamber, had already starved down. The
population may still appear to be strong, but it will not recover very well.
 
    This is an entirely different issue than sugar vs. honey.  If a hive
starves, even briefly, you can give them frames of honey, with the same
effect. They are weakened to the point where they just don't recover.
 
    Re: pollen and pollen shortages. Okay, most of my personal experience in
feeding sugar is in the south, where we have abundant pollen most of the
winter, unless we have a spell of extreme weather. It has been my experience,
time and time again, that feeding sugar keeps the bees occupied, generates new
brood, and works the older and sicker bees out of the loop. While it takes
energy to process the sugar, and individual bees may have their life span
shortened, the net result is younger, healthier bees -- a stronger hive.
 
     I've had less experience in wintering bees in the north, but I have seen
the dysentery that results from poor quality honey and lack of flight. It's
not a pretty sight. I would certainly rather winter them on sugar than poor
honey. Of course they must have pollen, and one must also count the pollen
that would have been present in the honey. If they did not store away
plentiful, pesticide-clean, goldenrod pollen, they will need a supplement.
 
    You can waste a lot of sugar feeding bees that are not worth the feed to
begin with, and you can look at them and tell if they are poor stock or
starved stock to begin with. Good bees look clean and smell sweet. Poor bees
are more nervous, shinier or greasier, and smell slightly sour. You can feed
poor bees til kingdom come and reap little reward. Bees with tracheal mites
often will not even take feed. You can feed good bees and they will build
explosively in the spring.
 
    We are more apt to have a pollen shortage in the summer, or very poor
quality pollen, or contaminated pollen. I've found that feeding sugar will
help little, if there is not plenty of good fresh pollen. But a quart of syrup
in the late summer, when good pollen is available again, will do wonders to
refresh a hive, and get them ready for fall pollination or goldenrod in
October.
 
>I am aware of some of the research on brood rearing with sugar and corn
>sugar.  Each paper I read limited their measurements to the area of brood
>raised.  I am not aware of any researcher ever measuring larval or brood
>survivability in relation to the type of feed.  I am also not aware of
>anyone measuring bee lipid content or other nutritional factors after
>wintering or feeding colonies on sugars Vs honey.
 
    Let me go on the record as being very much in support of good solid
research. I base my opinion on my years of experience, and that of others like
me. But that doesn't mean it is a closed topic. If someone can establish
something certain by good research, rather than shooting from the hip, I'll
listen.
 
[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
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