From:                   Murray McGregor <[log in to unmask]>

> Some of the things I have read in recent threads regarding the evils of
> feeding sound very extreme. Judicious feeding is a crucial management
> tool, especially in summer dearths, spring before nectar sources are
> freely available, and in autumn after they have ended.

    I loved Murray's well thought, well written, and well exampled
post. The quality of information on any Internet source is quite
variable, and folks need to exercise some discernment in what they
believe.  I believe a good way to seriously study any beekeeping
topic is to do a search of the Bee-list archives and look for
responses by Murray, and others, who have proven to be well reasoned
and backed by experience. It doesn't hurt to read what others say,
but question the source until their expertise is proven.

  Opinions are cheap and readily available, but real information is
gold. Some of the best voices on this list have been silenced by
death, or they don't write much anymore, because the topics have been
rehashed so many times. The *early* archives of this list are where
you can find them....

    The claim that honey isn't "pure" if there is a trace of syrup in
it...grates on me. Good management will keep that down to a trace at
most, but that trace doesn't bother me in the least. High fructose
corn syrup is entirely produced by "natural" processes. It derives
ultimately, as do the sugars in nectar, from the photosynthetic
process, and is simply another way to store the energy of sunshine.
The bee process HFCS in the same way as nectar, and the end result is
so similar that it is quite difficult to distinguish, and takes
extensive lab testing to discover.

   I have seen fraudulent practices (such as feeders in citrus groves
during the bloom, while the bees are supposedly making orange honey).
When a customer pays for honey, he should get honey. But that's a
different issue.

   The presence of a trace of corn syrup that might get into honey
from honest and normal practices of beekeeping bothers me not the
least.

   What does bother me is the number of these purists who cannot keep
their bees alive. They come looking in the spring for nucs or package
bees, when a much more practical program would be to feed when the
bees are hungry, keeping them alive, then feed again to get that
pregnant cow nice and fat in the spring, so she'll give them a calf.
You'd better believe all the guys to produce bees for sale in the
spring religiously feed the bees to produce more bees. The long-term
pattern: those who feed, keep on rescuing those who refuse to feed.

   As Murray points out, even if you don't split, bees that have a
couple extra frames of brood in the spring (the result of that feed)
will produce more honey in the summer. No more than tiny traces could
ever get into the honey, because almost all that feeding is converted
into more bees.

   Murray goes on to add some good common sense to the professional
vs amateur debate. Again opinion and fact have gotten into conflict.
I concur with him that the commercial beekeepers I have known are
almost all competent and produce a high quality product. Otherwise
they are only in business a short time. But hobbyists are much more
variable. Some are highly competent and produce high quality. Others
can only bee"keep" because they have an outside source of income to
support their hobby.

  Some are so highly opinionated that reason does not have a chance.
I have shown foulbrood on at least two occasions to hobby beekeepers
who refused to believe, or do anything about it (and suffered the
consequences).

   One thing I can state unequivacably from years of experience is
that feeding the bees when they need it pays off. And syrup is far
better for bees for winter feed, than *some* of the (all natural)
honeys. Since the lightest honeys are also the most saleable, bees
often wind up overwintering on the worst possible honeys. (I won't
ask for a show of hands as to how many northern beekeepers are seeing
dysentery deadouts this spring.)

Dave Green   SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com

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