Lloyd recommended the following for fall feeding:

> sugar syrup consisting of 2 parts sugar to one water.  Use very hot water,
> and stir with a drywall mixer inside a 5 gallon pail.  Add 1/4 cup of
> vinegar to retard mold and fungus.  Let cool and feed.

I am very interested by this mention of adding vinegar to prevent mold.
I've never seen this mentioned before in any of the books or journals
I've read. I have been keeping feed syrup available to my three hives
continuously so that they would be able to draw comb without interruption,
(as recommended by several sources), but up until now they haven't been
taking the syrup very fast because there has been a good nectar flow on.
Because of this, I've seen some mold starting to grow
in my feeder pails after about three weeks.  To keep the mold down, I've
been taking the pails off after three weeks, scrubbing out the pails with
chlorine bleach solution to sterilize them, and replacing the syrup
with fresh syrup regardless of whether they had eaten it all or not.

So, I have two questions:

1.  How much of a problem is it if the syrup gets a bit moldy?

2.  How much does vinegar extend the life of 1:1 and 2:1 sugar syrup,
and does it have any undesirable effects on the bees?

Thanks.

Tim Eisele
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