Hi All/David
 
David, I noticed you mentioned that you added apple cider vinegar to
your feeders to reduce fungus growth in them and that the hives did
really well.
 
This is very interesting - I wonder to what extent the bees were
using the acetic acid and other organic acids in the vinegar as a
feedstock. I know that that would only be a few milliliters per
liter/drops per cup but it would represent a useful amount of organic
acids that may be of use in synthesizing waxes and so on - I don't
know the biochemistry there, but if you noticed an increase in wax
production it would be interesting to look further.
 
The other thing is of course that apple cider vinegar is usually
produced by fermenting apples to cider, then allowing the cider's
alcohol content to be converted to acetic acid. The bonus here, over
say spirit vinegar is that the cider vinegar still has all it's
vitamins and such like left in it - some of these like biotin
(produced by some yeast) should be of use in wax production.
 
This is an interesting question.
 
Another thing that may be worth trying to aid preservation of the
stuff would be lactic acid - this is a powerful inhibitor of yeast
and bacterial growth - something the yeast themselves use to preserve
bee bread.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much space!!