[log in to unmask] asked about brown sugar as feed for bees.

I cannot site studies or references, but am sure it's not a good idea.
First, for the rest of the readers, brown sugar in the Carribean is not the
same as brown sugar one uses in the states.  The distinction is tha
Carribean brown sugar is simply sugar that is less refined than white, table
sugar.  Carribean brown sugar is what is referred to as "raw sugar" in the
states, as opposed to brown sugar that is used in baking recipes, which is
actually white sugar with molasses added and should NEVER be used as bee
feed.

Regardless, why it is a bad idea for bee feed is that the Carribean brown
sugar still has a lot of residues (which is why it's brown and why it is
cheaper).  Refining those residues out of Carribean brown sugar to make
white table sugar takes energy, hence the added expense.  Those residues
will stress your bees.

Now as I write this, with an appreciation that all beekeeping is local, I am
left wondering if the problem I describe (residues in Carribean brown sugar
causing digestive problems in bees) is actually a problem.  I would never
use Carribean brown sugar as feed for New York State bees because I would
only be feeding at a time when the bees are likely to be confined, and the
residues in the sugar would heavily stress my confined bees.  Carribean
brown sugar and confined bees is most likely a lethal combination.  But I
imagine the parameters are different in the Carribbean; the bees won't be
confined, at least not for the prolonged periods they are in my neck of the
woods (where the only palm trees grow in shopping malls).  So I realize that
I don't really know the answer to the question asked.  I am sure Carribean
brown sugar has high residues that make it unsuitable for feed in upstate
New York.  I don't know if it's a problem in parts of the world cursed with
wimpy weather ;-)

Aaron Morris - thinking 16 days 'til spring, 6 weeks 'til shorts!

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