Martin Hromadko said:

> MAXINVERT whivh should helps bees to split ( invert ) saccharid sugar
> ( disacharid ) to monosaccharides - glucose, fructose. Beekeeper should
> add it in sugar during feeding for winter and bees ( mainly winter generation )
> are better saved for nex year.Or when he wants to stimulate bees on spring.
> Do you have some experiences with this? Is it save for bees and for people?

Is someone actually marketing this as a bee feed additive?
If so, this is perhaps the biggest joke I have seen on Bee-L in years!!

Maxinvert ("u-fructofuranosidaseis") is an invertase.  Adding invertase to sugar
syrup intended for bee feed seems to be nothing but a time-consuming extra step,
and a needless expense.  The only tangible result of buying this stuff would be to
convert your money into THEIR money.

While it is strictly true that glucose and fructose are "more easily digested" than
sucrose, it is NOT true that breaking down sucrose into glucose and fructose takes
any "effort" at all.  Therefore, it is not true that feeding glucose and fructose, rather
than sucrose, is any "better for the bees" than feeding pure sucrose.

a)  The percent of sucrose (versus glucose and fructose) in nectar varies
     all over the scale, from nearly 0% to nearly 100%.  Different plants
     produce different mixes of sugars.  Bee saliva supplies any and all
     enzymes required to break down any/all sucrose, exactly as is done
     in your own body.

b)  Bees directly consume nectar all the time.  Given (a), they would appear
     to be able to digest high concentrations of sucrose with ease, just as you
     can.  In fact, heat alone (such as when you heat the water before you add
     the sugar when making sugar syrup) will break down a sizeable fraction of
     the sucrose to glucose and fructose.  (I can't say exactly how much, as it
     would depend upon both "how hot" and "how long it was hot".)

c)  The usual invertase reaction, when using the amounts of invertase
     added to sugar by those who make candies, hydrolyses the sucrose
     over a period of WEEKS.  It would not be a quick process when dealing
     with gallons of sugar syrup.  This means yet another tank sitting around
     taking up space, yet another liquid to leak, spill, and make a sticky mess.

d)  Let the bees do the chemistry!  A bee's hypopharyngeal gland produces
     more than just invertase.  It also produces at least diastase, and glucose
     oxidase, and perhaps other items I have forgotten, or never learned about.

e)  The bees must further process even pure glucose and fructose into "brood
     food", adding several glandular enzymes (that I can't remember, am too lazy
     to look up, and can't spell or pronounce correctly anyway).  Using invertase
     is not going to make feeding brood any easier.

I have no idea what would result from feeding sugar syrup with a high concentration of invertase
due to an incomplete invertase reaction, but it sure is not something that bees are used to finding
in nectar.

Any thoughts on the possible impact of "enzyme overdose" in nectar or bee feed, anyone?
All those enzymes are going to want to "eat" something or other.  Could this cause
"acid reflux" in bees?  Might we need to give them tiny little Zantac pills?  :)

Want more glucose and fructose, and less sucrose in your sugar syrup?
Easy - just bring the water to a full boil before you add the sugar.

        jim