>>..."honey contains materials that bees can not digest and sugar syrup makes for
>> a better source of food".
I think these sorts of statements are true in some contexts, but don't
pass the "All, every and any" sort of test necessary for universal and
unqualified truthfulness.
I can understand that in a region where honey is dark and high in
solids, and is the only honey known, and where sugar syrup was known
to mean syrup made from pure white sucrose dissolved in clean and
fairly pure water, that the statement would have obvious truth
However, where the local honey is known to be white and low in solids
and slow granulating, and sugar syrup was assumed to be from unrefined
or partially refined sugar in questionable water (Some parts of
Mexico?), then the statement appears to be false.
I recall on a surfing trip down the Baja, looking in vain for the
sugar-white beaches that we heard about. All we could find were quite
tan in colour. When we went grocery shopping, the penny dropped...
>> ...bees should only be fed fondant - that both syrup and honey
>> were bad foods for bees.
During winter, if hungry bees are fed thin syrup (and that is all the
person can manage to mix, due to the temperature of the water), bees
do poorly. Fondant or candy on the other hand has far less moisture
and, if done right, results in far better looking bees. Of course,
honey in comb would be best, but extracted honey fed back usually in
my experience results in greasy-looking bees, so if extracted honey,or
poor honey in combs is what is meant (and the extracted honey may
have been overheated, too), then the statement is true.
So, my guess is that what happens is that bee gurus make unqualified
statements because the contexts are fairly obvious at the time and
place that the statements are made, but that undiscerning disciples
carry the word forth and repeat it out of context.
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