Hi All/Stan
 
Interesting question - I think I can answer some of them:
 
>How much energy does the inversion proccess cost the bees?
 
Well the process requires enzymes - which are proteins. Proteins
requite a source of amino acids to build - if that source is lacking
the bees cannot do anything with the sugar syrup I believe and
actually take it and dump it in the sky some distance from the hive
(I have watched this happen clearly last year when I fed bees during
a complete dearth. Within 20 minutes of feeding the was full of bee
trails - and highlighted against the sun one could see cute little
squirts or something ebing dropped -that made sticky marks on the
trees). Hence I suspect that energy wise - if there is no source of
protein coming in the bees are going to be hammered as they have to
dispose of a potentially dangerous substance (can cause all sorts of
problems they are programmed to avoid) - using resrouces they don't
have.
 
If they are healthy and have a good source of protein I would hazard
a geuss that they inversion is most probably not one that the bees
have to invest energy in - there is latent energy in a disaccharide
that can drive the reaction. Heat would be enough.
 
>Which is better - glucose or fructose or invertsugar?
 
Glucose is slowly and efficiently broken down and enters the break
down proccess at the beginning - where the bees have enzymatic
controls to stop the reaction going too fast and bottle necking the
breakdown - leading to other pathways being activated and other
products like cholesterol being produced (I am assuming the same
rules apply for bees as for things like fish and humans and yeast
which do the same thing if they have too much).
 
Fructose enters the breakdown cycles at a point beyond which they
bees have enzymatic control over the rate of reaction - this forces
the cycles to produce products - like cholesterol and ketones etc.
This may not be good - or it may be good as it may provide starting
blocks for wax synthesis?
 
The mix would therefore be better - it is after all very similar to
honey, and won't use much proccessing.
 
THe US is the largest producer in the world of invert sugar - by a
very long way. After that comes Japan. HFCS is an invert sugar I
gather - check in the midwest somewhere in the corn belt. The same
company manufactures a lot of corn starch and monosodium glutamate
and lysine (you could probably get the name from any pig food
manufacturer as they will buy their lysine from this source
undoubtedly)
 
The US companies use corn starch as a starting point, whereas the
Japanese and Italians use mainly Rice. I suspect there are probably
large scale rice inverters in the US as well as Budweiser uses this
(rice invert sugar) as an ingredient. It is lower in protein than
corn product and as a result produces a less milky beer.
 
Hope that helps
 
Keep well
 
Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
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