This subject seems to be an ‘end of summer-get ready for wintering’
tradition here on Bee-L. I, too, used to believe that honey was vastly
superior as an overwintering food for bees. Intuitively, it seemed to me
that it had to be. It was, after all, something the bees made themselves.
Part of my problem with the honey vs. sugar thing was that I simply *didn’t
want to believe* sugar could be as good as or even better in some cases
than honey.

“With regard to the types of honey and sugar suitable for winter stores,
much depends on whether the winters are cold (with long spells when bees
cannot fly out of the hive to defecate), or mild and with no long spells
when flight is impossible. Where winters are mild, various forms of
unrefined sugar may be fed, but for cold winters refined sugar, such as
white table sugar, must be used. For a similar reason, honeys containing
material that cannot be absorbed by the honeybee gut are unsuitable as the
sole food for colonies in cold winters–for instance most honeydew honeys,
especially if crystallized and heather honey (Calluna vulgaris). Combs of
such honeys can, however, be left in the hive for winter, provided at least
5-10 kg refined sugar is also fed. There is quite a lot of evidence that
colonies wintered entirely on sugar syrup, with no honey, perform less
satisfactorily in the next active season than colonies wintered with some
honey; this is one reason for not harvesting honey combs from the brood
boxes.”

Eva Crane’s “Bees and Beekeeping Science, Practice and World Resources”

Regards,
Dick Allen

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