I was asked off list about bleach as a preservative.  My web guy will
be posting two articles this week.  I though that I would answer on
list.

I now prefer thymol as a preservative, although bleach may have
benefits.  The thymol will be covered in Twins 5--soon to be posted.
Here is excerpt from Fat Bees 3--also to be posted this week.

Be aware that light syrup can rapidly spoil during warm weather due to
fermentation and colonization by yeasts, bacteria, and fungi.  You can
prevent this by adding unscented household bleach ("ultra" 6% sodium
hypochlorite) at the rate of 1 cup per 55 gallons, or 4ml (4/5 tsp)
per gallon.  I've experimented with a bit with this chlorinated syrup.
 Initial free chlorine spikes quite high, then becomes undetectable to
the swimming pool test strips that I used after a few hours.  Yet even
several hours after mixing (sealed to prevent outgassing), the syrup
still prevented any microbial growth when I inoculated it.  It appears
that the free chlorine loosely binds to the sugar, yet retains its
activity for some time.  I found that as long as the syrup smelled
like a swimming pool, it would sterilize any feeder that I poured it
into.

A syrup preservative that I like even better than bleach is thymol. I
write about this in "The Nosema Twins 5."  You can also search this
site for "thymolated syrup."

Hope this helps

Randy Oliver
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 7:02 AM, Bill and Bobbie McGiffin
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> randy
> When will your article on bleach be out and can you copy me
> Thanks
> Bill

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