I don't think there's any mystery or extraordinary concern with feeding bees sucrose. The original enquirey was from Dick Bonney in Mass... who refered to a paper , Ruttner,1962. Percolation feeder. Bee World V 43 No 1, which stated that bees can't invert more than 2 -3 lb/day of sucrose. Robert Rice from Australia replied asking why does one want to feed the sugar, gave some large scale feeding experience, and mentioned that bees don't use sucrose like they do nectar. Perhaps the Australian experience is from use of sugar syrup to stimulate colonies in warm weather when there is inadequate nectar, rather than for winter feed. Under similar conditions here in the north, bees might stop taking the syrup if nectar became available, and a thin syrup might ferment before being stored by the bees. Perhaps the observation in Ruttner's paper has little or no significance to the bees' removal of syrup from feeders, but only on the subsequent inversion and storage. Certainly in areas with long winters, like here, lots of sucrose syrup is fed in fall, and is a major part of the colonies' food over the following 6 months at least. The mix is heavier than recently mentioned, however (I think that must have been a typing error?) The general description is 2 parts sugar to 1 of water, although beekeepers work on the number of 40 kg bags to a particular tank. It yields a syrup that contains just about all the sugar that readily dissolves in warm water. Until weather turns cold (staying below freezing) the bees store it readily and it doesn't ferment or granulate over winter. Some honeys can be poorly used by bees, if they granulate in the comb. The 1 to 1 syrup mix is used in spring. It stimulates as well as feeds, but it will ferment if not used, especially if the weather is warm. Fermentation is not usually a problem. I've seen colonies doing very poorly, being fed a thin syrup and with a small population, during cold weather. We would advise a thick syrup fed early enough in fall to allow storage (presumably also inversion and evaporation). Hives here since about Nov 1 have been either placed in a wintering building or wrapped with insulation (usually in groups of 4). Either way, they had been fed syrup with the equivalent of 10 to 50 lb of sugar (supplementing the honey they had stored after the crop was removed) to a total weight of 130 to 150 lb ( 2 standard boxes). We're predicting good wintering success, since an unusually moderate fall allowed lots of brood rearing in September and early October. Kerry Clark, Apiculture Specialist B.C. Ministry of Agriculture 1201 103 Ave Dawson Creek B.C. V1G 4J2 CANADA Tel (604) 784-2225 fax (604) 784-2299 INTERNET [log in to unmask]