> I know in a later post you qualified the AND did not mean EQUALS, but
> still the impression is there that dark is higher in solids, and that
> white has less solids and is slower to granulate.

I appreciate Bill's contibution on this question, and the contributions of
others, and I think that he pretty well sums up the matter, however I'll add
a few insights for whatever they may be worth.

Dark honies generally have a reputation -- deserved in each individual case
or not -- for containing minerals and non-sugar or indigestible sugar
constituents.  Some of these honies are assumed, and in some cases proven,
to be less than ideal for feeding confined bees.  Some of those dark honies
may be naturally that way and in other cases the colour may be a result of
handling or age.  Age darkens some white honies quickly and raises HMF
levels quite surpriingly. I've seen it!

> Reading my Hive and Honeybee about colour in honey does not indicate that
> (or contraindicate).  It merely says that colour is a function of optical
> density.   But it does give a table for mineral constituents of honey
> (from Schuette in the 1930's) that is done for both light and dark honey,
> and dark honeys are much richer in all the minerals.   Most of the
> minerals would be in soluble form, so would not really be "solids", but
> they would affect optical density (and maybe the need to defecate, I don't
> know).

Actually, the sugar components of honies are also -- AFAIK -- technically
solids, and some of them are in my mind potentially harmful if bound to the
feed and not able to be metablized or eliminated.  Additionally, of course,
minerals are potentially solids after the dissolving medium is metabolized
away, as are some materials in suspension.  Fibre may not leave much ash,
but will leave bulk in the gut.  All of these things, including, I believe,
sugars damaged by heat or age --or both-- can add colour.

Whether constituents are 'liquid' or not in the honey being fed, I think we
have to consider whether they or their breakdown products remain in the bee
after the sugars are turned to water and CO2 and respirated away.

I think Bill hit the nail on the head with the catch-all term, ash.  That
simplifies theissue, however --t o complicate things further--  I would
speculate that some 'ash' might be digestible by some chemical action in
the bee and absorbed, such as some minerals.

As with HFCS, clear appearance and water-white colour are reputed to tend to
indicate safer choices, although this is a tendancy, as Satn stipulates, not
an absolute criterion.

Of course, bees can tolerate quite a lot of junk in their food without
showing any adverse effects, but over the years, I have learned that taking
chances is just that -- taking chances.

> As far as granulation goes,  I think it is pretty well known that the
> tendency of a honey to granulate has to do with the ratio of glucose and
> fructose in the honey, and I don't know what relation colour has there.

As far as I know, there is none, unless some sugars darken with age or heat
more quickly than others.  After all, honey ages and darkens even under
normal hive temperatures, and normal ambient temps in summer and the South..

> I do know that buckwheat honey is very resistant to granulation (despite
> its colour).  I had some splits a few years ago  that were made before
> buckwheat flowered and stored quite a lot in the second brood box and
> wintered on it.  They appeared to do excellently on it.

I do excellently on buckwheat honey as well.  It is at a premium around
here, especially if it is 120 mm or so.

Actually, in milder climes with short winters and flying weather, and where
there is fall or spring honey that is hard to sell, beekeepers do winter on
it.

Up here where the bees need every edge most beekeepers try to make sure
their bees are either on good honey or sucrose feed.

Every day that the bees can 'hold it in' and every extra day of bee life
that can be gleaned by mitigating risk is precious.

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