This experiment suggests that commercial sugar may be to blame in reduce survival 

> Honey bees which received centrifuged honey, sucrose syrup and honey lived a mean of 34.78, 25.57 and 24.9 days respectively  

> Whilst sucrose syrup appears to be the most commonly used diet applied during honey bee cage experiments, dead honey bees may occur within the first week of feeding. However, sucrose syrup remains the dominant food supplement for cage experiments since past research has proved that all alternative hydrocarbon diets, including honey, decrease the lifespan of honey bees when compared to syrup.

> In this study we tested feeding caged honey bees with honey from which all pollen grains and possibly all pathogenic spores were removed through high speed centrifugation. ... This study showed that highly centrifuged honey could be applied as an improved reliable diet for experimentally caged honey bees. ...  Honey bees fed on sucrose syrup solution had a shorter lifespan and dead bees appeared earlier compared to honey bees fed on centrifuged honey. The source of the early mortality and shorted lifespan in general, is unknown.

> The quality of the sugar could be a factor that might affect honey bees’ health and longevity since a great range of agrochemicals is used in sugar cane and sugar beet cultivation, contaminating the final product with residues (Tekel et al., 1988; Tekel and Kovacicova, 1993) which could have an impact on honey bees’ lifespan.

>The impact of the quality of sugar on the experimentally caged honey bees and, consequently on colonies supplied with sugar, should also become a field of future research, since during this present study, we did not run any pesticide residue test on the sucrose that we used.

Papachristoforou, A., Termentzi, A., Halabalaki, M., & Koutouvela, E. (2013). The application of highly centrifuged honey as an improved diet for experimentally caged honey bees. Journal of Apicultural Research, 52(5), 179-183.

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