In a message dated 96-05-22 19:39:08 EDT, you write:
 
>
>Will bees eat (be attracted to) artificial sweeteners?  I.e., can they be
>"fooled" by Nutrasweet or saccharin?  Not that you'd want to feed them with
>it, but is "sweet" to us necessarily sweet to them?
>(Ridiculous, i know, but had to throw it out there.)  Just in case your
>bees start getting too portly
 
  My bees wouldn't touch sorbital, even when mixed with some corn syrup.  I
had one barrel this spring that was sold to me as corn syrup, but wasn't.  It
was a total loss.  It also leaves a deposit on comb, which is like rock, and
the bees can't clean it up.
 
   I suspect that nutrasweet would be the same.  (I had some fun by posing a
similar question last year on April 1 - you might want to get the log.)  I
think the bees' sweetness detectors/taste buds are more effective than ours
in detecting the energy content of the food.
 
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