Why is my sugar syrup turning into crystalized sugar?

[Ron Young]

I cleaned out the top feeder yesterday and removed a good bit of crystalized sugar. I replaced the feeder, and made a new batch of syrup 2:1, and put about 1/3 gal into the feeder. I just looked, and it too is crystalized. Is this normal for this time of year, or am I doing something wrong in making the syrup?

[SweetBettyBees]

Are you certain you're dissolving the sugar thoroughly? I was taught to heat the water to just about boiling, turn off the heat and then add the sugar. Stir, stir, stir till there's no granular quality to the surup when you rub some between your fingers.

You don't want to boil the surup - that will guarentee rock candy, plus - and I don' know the reason behind this - "they" say that feeding boiled surup creates a caramel-esque substance that's bad for the bees.

But you don't need to get too scientific. One of our local beeks pours the dry sugar in the hive top feeder, then pours in some water, stirs it around and soup's on.

All that being said, I wouldn't worry about a little bit of crystalized sugar so long as it doesn't block whatever holes it's being served through. Some folks feed straight dry suger and the bees deal with it.


If you don't push them too far, bees will let you get away with a lot.

[Ron Young]

What does the carmelized sugar do to the bees?

[Yuleluder]

I would add more water to your mixture, sounds like you have to much sugar.

[Ron Young]

Also, I forgot to add that I made up enough syrup to use all of a 25 lb bag. I have three full gal. in the fridg, and they are all fine, not showing any signs of crystalization at all. I was first thinking that the overnight temperature being low had caused it, but when I looked in on teh ones in the fridg, they were fine. The mix is 2:1, same as I have been feeding.

[Finman]

.

As it is said, add water. It helps bees to take syrup faster. I use 60%. 66% is too tight and it makes bees thirsty.

[D Coates]

Carmel gives them digestive problems. In a clustered hive this can cause some serious problems.

[iddee]

I pour the sugar into the cold water and turn the burner on. I stir until all sugar is off the bottom. It looks cloudy until the water begins to boil. Within seconds of boiling, not minutes, it almost instantly clears. I remove it from the heat as soon as it clears and have never had it crystallize. Boiling for 10 to 20 seconds will not caramelize it.

Now that yours is solid, just add hot water and it will dissolve again.

[rache]

i thought carmelized sugar was "burned" sugar?

i've been boiling my syrup since the beginning (sometimes longer than other times, usually because something else was demanding my attention and eventually i remembered, crap, there's sugar on the stove...) and only once did i have the crystallization - fixed by adding a little water to the syrup.

[Michael Bush]

I boil the water, add the sugar and continue to heat and stir occasionally until the water is clear.

[power napper]

I just use hot tap water, one vitamin C tablet and the sugar--shake plastic jug back and forth couple times, when the C is disolved shake again before filling feeder.
Works for me!

[acwest]

May I inquire what the Vitamin C is for?

[Dwight]

I just use hot tap water also. The only time I have any problems is if I am making 2:1 and I don't stir it enough. then I get a little crystalization which I fix by adding a little hot water and stirring some more.

[Ron Young]

I would like to know about the vitamine C as well. ???

[kawayanan]

Not sure if this is where power napper got it, but here is the only other place I have seen anything about Vit C

http://bwrangler.madpage.com/bee/gsub.htm

Kawayanan

[tony350i]

>I boil the water, add the sugar and continue to heat and stir occasionally until the water is clean,

This is how I do it too.

Tony

[beegee]

I use boiling water, pour into a hive-top bucket feeder with 5 lbs sugar, stir until dissolved add 4 tsp. Honey-B-healthy. I never have a crystallization problem. Remember high school chem lab, when you made a super-saturated solution of sugar water? You boil water and keep adding sugar until that one last crystal of sugar added turns the whole thing into a giant candy crystal. It has something to do with moles and Avogadro's number or something....

[Maine_Beekeeper]

I use a big plastic juice "pitcher" - the like my mon used to have with a plastic lid that you can turn and shut the spout off (pretty well)
I fill it a little less than half full of sugar and then fill to top with boiling water from the kettle. Stir with a whisk and it's done in about 2 minutes (clear).
If I'm feeling feisty I let it cool, add a few drops of wintergreen oil and mix with a stand mixer (the wintergreen oil diffuses and makes the syrup look "cloudy"
in the summer when it was hot I would squeeze in a section of lemon also before mixing to retard mold.

[CWBees]

I get the water boiling then add the sugar. I turn the heat down and stir till the sugar is dissolved. I then add a little cider viniger to prevent mold. Let it cool down and it is ready for the bees.

[Michael Bush]

I throw five 1000mg cheap vitamin "C" from Sams in the water when I boil it (to make five gallons of syrup). It won't dissolve in 2:1 syrup. It seems to slow down the mold. When I put seven of them in I was getting some red mold instead of the usual black mold, so I backed off to five.