I think that Robinson et al have made a good case that honey is the better food for bees than artificial substitutes, not that anyone would doubt that. They write

Our goal was to perform a broad unbiased survey for the effects of
honey, sucrose and HFCS on honey bee physiology. Our result that
honey – but not sucrose or HFCS – upregulates genes associated with
protein metabolism and oxidation reduction is indicative that honey
elicits health-related physiological differences.

A honey diet elicited a transcriptional profile distinct from sucrose
and HFCS diets. These differences were present in two different
honey bee colonies, with vastly different viral loads, indicating the
impact of honey on fat body gene expression is robust. These results
suggest that constituents in honey differentially regulate physiological
processes and that sucrose and HFCS may not be equivalent
nutritional substitutes to honey.

there is growing evidence that constituents in natural honey, absent
from sucrose and HFCS, positively affect the honey bee’s xenobiotic
detoxification system. These results suggest that honey, sucrose
and HFCS may impact honey bee physiology and health differently.

SEE
Johnson, R. M. et al. Ecologically appropriate xenobiotics induce cytochrome
P450s in Apis mellifera. PLoS ONE 7, e31051– (2012).

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