From: RSBrenchley@aol.com
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 09:25:20 EST
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Sugar and wintering

> Specificially, where is this received wisdom from that refined sugar
> (bleached white?) is better then honey? Didn't know that bees refined sugar
> in preference to honey.

I can't place the origin of this off the top of my head, I'll look for
it. Ron Brown describes some A.m.m. which wintered better of heather honey;
it's in one of his books which I don't have, but it's in the public library.
My doubts originate from the practice of feeding sugar having come in with
the importation of Italian bees, which obviously weren't adapted to our
winters. There's no doubt that bees in heather areas (which covered a good
bit of the UK) were wintering happily on high-protein honey, or they wouldn't
have survived there.

Regards,

Robert Brenchley,
Birmingham, UK.