Anyone Feeding Confectionary sugar to bees

A friend was telling me he just purchased a tote/ stack of bulk sugar. He was told it was a combination of powdered sugar and granular sugar, as it turns out he sees mostly confectionary as he emptied the tote. I have always known confectionary sugar to have corn starch in it. I know folks use confectionary sugar to do mite knock downs and sugar rolls but I'm talking about mixing this with water and filling feeders with it. I'm just wondering if this widely used or accepted by the beeks that mix there own sugar water.

Thanks in advance

I have just started to feed some. I mix it a day before I need it and let the starch settle.
I pour the syrup off the top and leave the residue. No problems so far.

My wife worked at a bakery and would bring the empty buckets home that still had icing in the bottom. I put them out on the picnic table for the bees to clean up (300 ft. from there hives) they would fly in check it out and fly off, they wouldn't eat it? I no longer eat donuts and rolls from bakeries, if the bees won't eat it why should i.:scratch: If you melt it and mix it with water it might make a differents.

mbeck, sounds interesting, I wouldn't have thought the starch would not disolve which I guess is a good thing.

Thanks

Are you sure it is confectioners sugar and not powdered sugar? -js

I'm not sure at this point. He is going to disolve some in hot water and see if anything doesn't disolve and lays at the bottom of the bucket.

I have been told by a beekeeper thats all he uses donw south for spring feeding.

To help make your decision on feeding confectionary sugar, take a look at this link to Domino's website, straight from the horses mouth. :eek:

http://www.dominosugar.com/sugar/confectioners-sugar

Is there any data out there that suggests that the starch in confectionary sugar is bad for the bees?

That's the issue I'm concerned about is the corn starch- I wouldn't think anything made from corn could be good for bees? Maybe the starch passes through the gut since it has no nutritional value( at least I don't think it does)?

I talked to Ted Elk and he says he feeds confectionary sugar to his bees in SC for spring build up and has never had issues with it.

from bee-l



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Are you talking powdered sugar or icing sugar which has a percent of starch?

We only use *powdered* sugar when applying terra.

We have fed plenty of the Domino brand (cake) icing sugar with a 6 % starch
but only this time of year when the bees are flying. Never for winter use.

Warning:

There are some 2000 lb. bags being sold with a granulated sugar which turns
to a gel in the feeders. The bees seem to do ok on the crap (even over
winter) but I observed what looked like an inner tube of a rubber like gel
dumped from the bottom of drums when stored after mixed. I do not know what
the label says or where the beekeepers purchased the sugar.

I bought some hives from a beekeeper awhile back and found an inch of the
gel in the bottom of the feeders. Seems he fed some of the sugar last fall.
We dug the gel out and the bees look great.


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Bob gave an excellent answer. The starch is largely insoluble, and
precipitates out when the sugar is dissolved in water. That is the goo at
the bottom. I do not know how much starch remains in solution, but easy to
test.

Starch reacts with iodine to form a purplish-black color. Simply drop
medicinal iodine tincture into your syrup to see how much starch it
contains, by color.

Randy Oliver

.

Excellent read. Thanks Mike. It would appear as though there is not a large alarm about the corn starch in the sugar for the bees. May not be TOP shelf choice but seems as though it probably doesn't hurt the bees.

Sounds good, Mike, Thanks for the info. A mutual friend of our is using it to make a patty, something like fondant, with brood builder mixed in to feed his bees up north- I may advise him to be careful since the bees are not flying much up here these days.

Its 60s and 70s in S Ga this week though. It would be fine in that weather. Too bad Im not there.