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Date:         Mon, 6 Feb 1995 10:51:14 -0500
From: WILLIAM G LORD <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Yellow Jackets
 
Dave;
 
I am interested in your comment about dry sugar feeders.  You must
find them useful if you are using them but could you describe your
experiences with them and give a rough description?
 
Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC
 TMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM>
 
    Hello Bill, I ain't Dave but I will add a little from my own
experiences at feeding bees on a grand scale.
 
      Not clear if you are interested in feeding Honey Bee's or
some other bees.
 
      For Honey Bee's dry feeding is ok in an emergency situation,
but not so good as a regulated or metered way to feed honey bees to
increase stores or stimulate brood rearing. Though feeding dry sugar
will work and some may use it this way, but it will also burn out the
bees, or prematurely age them. One way, but expensive, to overcome some
of this and still dry feed is to add fondant sugar such as DRIVERT to
the dry sugar, maybe 100 to 300 thoroughly mixed. Add TM too. This seems
to add enough invert to make it easier for the bees to use the dry
sugars without the burn out, but not as good as supersaturated sugars
in solution.
 
      The best way that I have found to feed bees is to use a liquid
sugar syrup, invert type, or a blend of invert corn syrup and liquid
sugars. The bees respond to this type of feeding as if it was natural
nectar, and the moisture can be adjusted, heavier for making stores, or
lighter for stimulation. Even at best with todays small spread in
the sugar and honey price, it is border line if feeding pays unless you
are looking to gain more broodrearing to make increase. Feeding bees a
pound of sugar solids in any form does not give you a pound of honey
replacement as the bees will use much of the energy from the sugar up in
storing it, and with dry sugar will have to fly several miles with water
for each pound of sugar fed. Many times in the changing spring weather
they don't get back.
 
      Feeding bees does increase flight, and for years beekeepers in
California, that rent their bees to almond growers who "know it all"
about bee's but never owned one, will put a gallon can about 12 pounds
gross weight on the bee's. This impresses the "know it all" grower with
much bee activity, even in some cases its the strong hives robbing on
the weak one's, and crowds the bee's so they look stronger if the hive
is opened for strength inspection. You can collect much more pollen with
pollen traps on if you provide a slow continuous flow with sugar syrup
such as is the normal in many spring conditions, and this could indicate
something in crop pollination. In tree fruits I have serious doubts,
as the amount of pollen that is produced from any acre is very small and
in most cases can be cleaned up in a few hours by the bees if good
flight weather can be had. Much work has been done on bees and almond
pollination, little has been learned about the basics, or if there is a
negative correlation to crop size by having too many bees present at any
one time that may clean all the pollen up and store it for food, at the
expense of more almonds. The problems and research has been limited to
getting bees for almond pollination. With some very shaky research on
bee strength and flight studies, most all biased with the addition of
some form of sugar.
 
     The addition of TM to the syrup is a plus factor for the overall
health of the hive and really allows the beekeeper to combine the task
of feeding bees with medicating them. The stories put out by well
meaning people who never kept bees about the fast degradation of TM in
sugar syrup are in error and taken out of context in research done by
others. TM does degenerate fast in liquid, that why it sold mostly as a
water soluble product, but the recommended levels of active material
take this into account. ALL TM added to any carrier must be liquefied
by the bees to be useful as any food intended for use by the bees is
always in a liquid form including pollen. I am beginning to sound like
a salesman for PFIZER, but I am only a old drone, and one who joined
with other farm users of Terramycin and won some nice refunds in a price
fixing case against Pfizer when they got a little to cocky with their
product pricing.
 
    OH hay there I go again, my x-wife told me that I should not mouth
off so much, when all she wanted to know if I would be home for dinner.
I would always ask what we were going to have. Well, sure you can feed
you bees dry sugar, I once found a outfit that fed their's prune juice,
and the bees stored it. But I would not recommend it for bees as they
are regular as clockwork and don't need that extra push some of us old
beekeepers do to get started in the morning.
 
SOURCE: For sugars in small or large lots, DADANT & Son's nearest
        branch, other beekeepers, other supply houses.
 
BTW: The almonds have been coming out for a week now, and the bees
     have only had about 4 good hours of flight. In fact the last
     month in this area the bees have only had about 4 good hours
     of flight time. I sure would not want my wash out when this
     weather brakes, the air will fill with bees and yellow rain
     like nothing ever reported seen in Nam..
 
                                ttul Andy-
 
 
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