Hi All/Stan Interesting question - I think I can answer some of them: >How much energy does the inversion proccess cost the bees? Well the process requires enzymes - which are proteins. Proteins requite a source of amino acids to build - if that source is lacking the bees cannot do anything with the sugar syrup I believe and actually take it and dump it in the sky some distance from the hive (I have watched this happen clearly last year when I fed bees during a complete dearth. Within 20 minutes of feeding the was full of bee trails - and highlighted against the sun one could see cute little squirts or something ebing dropped -that made sticky marks on the trees). Hence I suspect that energy wise - if there is no source of protein coming in the bees are going to be hammered as they have to dispose of a potentially dangerous substance (can cause all sorts of problems they are programmed to avoid) - using resrouces they don't have. If they are healthy and have a good source of protein I would hazard a geuss that they inversion is most probably not one that the bees have to invest energy in - there is latent energy in a disaccharide that can drive the reaction. Heat would be enough. >Which is better - glucose or fructose or invertsugar? Glucose is slowly and efficiently broken down and enters the break down proccess at the beginning - where the bees have enzymatic controls to stop the reaction going too fast and bottle necking the breakdown - leading to other pathways being activated and other products like cholesterol being produced (I am assuming the same rules apply for bees as for things like fish and humans and yeast which do the same thing if they have too much). Fructose enters the breakdown cycles at a point beyond which they bees have enzymatic control over the rate of reaction - this forces the cycles to produce products - like cholesterol and ketones etc. This may not be good - or it may be good as it may provide starting blocks for wax synthesis? The mix would therefore be better - it is after all very similar to honey, and won't use much proccessing. THe US is the largest producer in the world of invert sugar - by a very long way. After that comes Japan. HFCS is an invert sugar I gather - check in the midwest somewhere in the corn belt. The same company manufactures a lot of corn starch and monosodium glutamate and lysine (you could probably get the name from any pig food manufacturer as they will buy their lysine from this source undoubtedly) The US companies use corn starch as a starting point, whereas the Japanese and Italians use mainly Rice. I suspect there are probably large scale rice inverters in the US as well as Budweiser uses this (rice invert sugar) as an ingredient. It is lower in protein than corn product and as a result produces a less milky beer. Hope that helps Keep well Garth Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries 15 Park Road Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis 6139 South Africa Time = Honey The Universe is not here right now, if you would like to leave a message, leave your name and number after the long silence and it will get back to you as soon as possible.