> My understanding has always been that bees must undertake flight to
 > stimulate production of the enzyme necessary to digest sucrose to the
 > monosaccharides glucose and fructose.

I have never heard that, and not seen anything that would tend to make
me think it to be so.  Could be true, though.  Don't know.

Moreover, bees do not necessarily completely invert sucrose when storing
and before capping.  They'll gather and store regardless.

Also, my understanding is that a little of the enzyme goes a long way
and continues to act over time.  My recollection is that the action is
catalytic.  I don't even know if the enzyme depletes much, except with
passing time, unless heated.  I may be wrong.  Don't know.

 > Indeed when I have fed sugar syrup to a load of bees it has
 > immediately induced a significant stimulation of flight activity,
 > so much so, that we generally refer to the feed as "Avgas"!

Interesting.  We feed 67% syrup in fall and I can't say that this
induces greatly increased flight activity if it is fed inside the hive
and there are no leaks outside to stimulate robbing and searching
behaviour, and especially if fed in poor weather or at the end of the day.

There is some increased flight, but I assumed it is just searching due
to the sudden presence of a new food in the hive.  If there are spills
in the yard, then the action intensifies.

In spring, we sometimes feed dilute syrup and that is intended to
stimulate the hives in a number of ways.  Flight can be one of them if
the weather is right.

Of course feeding outside the hives, as we have discussed here recently
greatly stimulates flight regardless of concentration -- or it would not
work -- but if the syrup is too dilute, it attracts less interest and
may spoil before it is taken unless stabilized with sorbate.

I personally have found type 55 to be an excellent spring feed and
prefer it to sucrose, although there are good arguments for either.

For winter, credible and replicated studies seem to indicate a slightly
reduced bee lifespan on invert when compared to sucrose.  In warm
regions, this is not a concern, but in the North, with long confinements
and 6 months between significant brooding periods, a 10% shorter life
could result in dwindling just when the populations are needed to build
up in spring.

That said, good beekeepers have proven that they can winter well on
either feed and poor beekeepers have proven that they can lose hives on
either.

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