The question usually goes something like this: “How long does it take for the bees to turn syrup into honey?”
The answer is “they can’t.” Bees can never turn sugar syrup into honey. Harry Potter himself couldn’t do it. Syrup is made from granulated sugar (sucrose) dissolved in water. After the bees get done finagling with it, enzyming it, fanning it, and storing it you still have sugar in water—nothing more.
The idea that bees can change syrup into honey comes from the mistaken belief that enzymes in the bee’s honey stomach are responsible for creating honey. But it’s the chemical compounds in nectar—an astounding array of different substances—that gives honey its flavor and aroma.
In spite of its lack of substance, bees treat sugar syrup as if it were honey. They take it into their honey stomachs, pass it around, store it in cells, and dry it to the proper moisture level. This is why honey producers never feed syrup while honey supers are in place. If syrup is readily available to bees, the real honey soon becomes contaminated with the syrup.
I knew a beekeeper who fed sugar syrup to her bees all spring and summer with honey supers in place and then marketed her product as “pure honey.” When I asked her about it, she explained to me that the bees ate the sugar syrup which gave them lots of energy to collect nectar and make honey. She saw nothing wrong with the practice because she thought the bees treated the substances differently. No amount of explanation on my part made an impression on her and, as far as I know, she still does it . . . and teaches a beekeeping class as well.
The important point here is that although syrup cannot be made into honey, bees treat syrup no differently than nectar. If we interfere with the bees’ life processes (by feeding sugar syrup) we must understand the consequences of our actions and take steps to avoid problems.
Rusty
As always, I love reading your blog! But this one left me with questions. I’m still a newbie but I’ve been around long enough to know that syrup fed to bees does not honey make. I have not, however, been around long enough to understand the “consequences of my actions” nor the “steps to avoid problems.” Please expound. What consequences? What steps? What problems? I’m thirsty!
Okay, I see I’ll have to expand this in another post. But basically, the consequences of feeding bees sugar syrup when honey supers are in place is that the honey becomes contaminated. It is both unethical and illegal to “extend” honey with syrup, and whether you just pour it in the bottle or you let the bees do it, it amounts to the same thing. Tests have been developed to detect sugar syrup in honey. Unfortunately, it is easier to detect sugar from cane than sugar from beets, but the analyses are getting more sophisticated all the time.
Certain countries have a reputation for “extending” honey and we try to keep it out of our imports. Then, when we find beekeepers at home doing it, that is really sad. Remember the woman I mentioned, who feeds her bees during honey flow? Imagine someone tasting her honey and deciding honey isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s just sweet and syrupy, nothing else. Isn’t that sad? Isn’t it sad for the entire honey industry? Plus the consumer paid for something that she didn’t get. She paid for honey; she got granulated sugar mixed with honey. Misrepresenting the ingredients in a product is a serious crime and it casts a shadow over all beekeepers.
The major step to avoiding these problems is to be meticulous about removing all syrup before adding supers and realizing that syrup feeding is just a stop-gap measure for saving a hive from starving. It is not something that should be done routinely.
I hope this helps you for now. I made a note to expand on this in the future.
From my understanding nectar is a mixture of fructose and “sucrose” and thus honey by nature is a mixture of the two . . . When and how quickly honey crystallize is due to the ratio of the 2 sugars . . . I think feeding your honeybees all the time is not for me . . . I want a clean natural product for my own consumption . . . With that said, SUCROSE is sucrose weather from white refined sugar or from plant nectar . . . ALF
Sometimes I am not too quick with my thoughts, sucrose is the 3rd sugar . . . fructose and glucose are in nectar right . . . DUMB DUMB DUMB, I am . . . ALF
Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s complicated stuff.
Honey is a mixture of glucose and fructose and, yes, it’s the ratio between the two the controls the rate of crystallization. Sucrose is a polysaccharide of glucose and fructose.
“No amount of explanation on my part made an impression on her and, as far as I know, she still does it . . . and teaches a beekeeping class as well.”
Disturbing, disturbing, and disturbing. Some people . . . never mind, I’ll bite my tongue.
Thanks, Rusty, for clarifying that part. What scares me more than feeding with supers on is how do these same people handle medications. I have often had that thought pop into my mind – perish the thought!
Yes, it’s exactly the same problem. Many bee medications are not to be used with honey supers in place. But how many beekeepers follow these instructions is anybody’s guess.
Honey tainted with antibiotics has been discovered in imports, but domestic honey is seldom tested.