The paper which the article cites also looked at corn syrup, honey and sugar
(boiled and heated) and came to the conclusion that the best winter feed was plain
sugar syrup- not boiled but just dissolved. It caused the least- if any-
dysentary.
 
 
Richard Bonney wrote:
 
> The following is excerpted from an article on sugar in "Bee Culture"
> from February 1997.  The researcher mentioned is Leslie Bailey from
> England. If anyone is interested in a citation I can track it down.
>
> Using Cream of Tartar.
>
>         A part of the normal process when bees convert nectar to honey in the
> hive involves the chemical inversion of sugar. Simply stated, sucrose is
> converted to glucose and fructose.
>         When we feed bees sugar syrup, they make a similar inversion. The
> standard feed, granulated sugar, is sucrose. The bees convert this to
> glucose and fructose before storing it.
>         It has long been the practice of many beekeepers to add tartaric acid
> to sugar syrup to aid in the inversion process, and instructions for
> making syrup often call for tartaric acid, either as such, or in the
> form of cream of tartar. The acid also prevents crystallization of the
> syrup later.
>         Many years ago a researcher found that if no natural nectar was coming
> in, feeding syrup containing cream of tartar (or vinegar) caused
> dysentery, shortening the lives of the bees to one third that of bees
> fed plain sugar syrup. This finding was written up at the time but does
> not seem to have become part of the common knowledge of beekeepers.
> Tartaric acid is still occasionally recommended, without any
> qualification as to the possible ill effects. Use it judiciously if at
> all.
>
> Dick Bonney
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