It has been noted that any other than whitetable sugar is no good as bee food.IN some cases it destroys the colony. vince b constable >On Mon, 17 Jul 1995, Marion D. Ellis wrote: > >> I have observed starving colonies that were fed unrefined sugar in October >> in the mid-west that were severely affected by dysentery by December. They >> were hauled to Texas by their owner in December who later described the >> situation to me as a total loss. > >I am wondering exactly what type of 'unrefined sugar' this might be. > >There are many many types of sugar and stages of refining. > >Without saying that the feed was not the cause (or a contributing cause). >I must add that bees that are starving in the fall are often a total loss >no matter what you do, especially if they haver reached the stage of >canabalising the brood and exhausting the pollen reserves that are >uncovered. > >Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that the pure the sugar is, the less >problems might develop, however there are various degrees of unrefinement >and I am sure there must be some levels of unrefinement which may be >acceptable for bees to winter. > >The sugar which is quoted on the 'world sugar' contracts is at a fairly >high level of refinement, I believe, and is still considered unrefined. >Nonetheless it is used as table sugar in Mexico -- at least I assume it >is the same sugar. It is a little off white compared to US and Canadian >sugar. > >I am quite interested in this because refined sugar goes for a lot more >money than some of the unrefined stages. > >I don't know what beets go for, but I tried slicing a sugar beet at Taber >one time when I was driving by (They are piled in huge stacks like gravel >beside the road in the fall.) Uggghh! > >Not very sweet at all. > >I's sure like to hear more about this, but it would help if we could >define exactly the product we are discussing each time. I don't know if >this is possible, but it would help. > >Simple table sugar in on area of a country may be cane sugar, another >area may be using beet sugar, and there are overlaps. > >Then again too, refining is an art in itself and I suspect some processes >are proprietary. > >I wonder about minority impurities. Jerry B's comments from this list >some time back have me requesting the water analysis from the town that >supplies the water for mixing the syrup that I buy for my bees! > >FWIW > >Allen > >W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper VE6CFK >Rural Route One Swalwell Alberta Canada T0M 1Y0 >Email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] >Futures, Art & Honey:http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~dicka > >