> ...but if mixed with syrups, and honey/syrup mixes could this be a cause 
> of bees dying and beekeepers trying to figure out why.

This is in reference to salt, starches, and other toxic items in bee feeds.

Some beekeepers will feed scrap material to bees because they can get the 
scrap cheap.  I've done so myself, buying candy factory sugar, cookie 
factory sugar, and surplus HFCS from a bankrupt candy factory.  At the time, 
it seemed smart, but knowing what I know now, I would not use or 
recommended, anything except proven and tested, quaility-controlled and 
certified materials.

Some beekeepers also think that feeding what is tested and recommended 
cannot be enough for their bees, since the ingredients are so common, 
simple,and understandable, so they add salts and other 'magic' ingredients. 
I constantly point out that this may not be wise, unless we know for certain 
that bees actually *need* the ingredient in question, and that it does not 
bring along other compounds which are harmful with it, or cause a chemical 
reaction over time in solution.  Adding more ingredients is not necessarily 
better, since the more ingredients, the more potential reactions.

As far as syrups are concerned, the various forms of HFCS have been drawn 
into question.  This is not new.  Beekeepers have long known that type 42 is 
not a good feed in the north where bees are confined, and that even type 55 
demonstrates reduced bee lifespan (from minor to significant) in many caged 
tests.  Their use is subject to caveats.  Where bees are free-flying and 
have other food sources, especially in the south, some beekeepers consider 
these effects to be negligible or unimportant.

Mixes of HFCS and sugar syrup are sold for some purposes, are cheaper than 
sucrose, and seem to satisfy the needs of beekeepers in some circumstances, 
however the problem of a variable and unpredictable behaviour remains.  I 
spoke to a beekeeper when I was in California in 2006 who figures his loss 
of over 1,000 hives was due to such feed.

Sucrose syrup, with nothing added, on the other hand, has been almost 
universally endorsed as being the best *supplemental* feed for bees, even 
over many, if not most, honies.  That is not to say that it is better than 
combs of good honey stored by the bees themselves -- it is not -- but it is 
usually better than honey which has been extracted and fed back, for various 
reasons which we have covered many times.

> Especially, with hives on agric ranches/farms where salt blocks are used 
> perhaps????? Just thinking.. any comments?

I suppose we have to wonder if bees would gather toxic levels of salt from 
licks.  I think not.  Nobody reports huge clumps of bees on salt blocks, and 
farmers never call to tell me that the cattle cannot get to the salt licks 
due to bees, the way they do with their chop bins.  How much salt can bees 
get off salt blocks, anyhow, and what would be the effect on the bee sucking 
up concentrated salt water?

We do see bees gathering minerals from dung heaps and such, but they do not 
take a great deal of such material.

In a situation where the only water supply is contaminated with high salt 
levels one might wonder, however bees seem to thrive near the ocean and 
don't get poisoned, so I think this is a rather unlikely concern if there is 
any other source of water.

Jerry has however, reported that some water sources are high in some 
minerals which are relatively benign and not obvious to humans, but toxic to 
bees, like fluorides in low concentrations. 

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