Feed bees fruit juice?

[drmanhadan]

"Cane and beet sugars are suitable substitutes for the carbohydrates in the natural diet of adult bees. Bees also utilize the carbohydrates in certain fruit and plant juices."
I've got some extra juice boxes, would they make for good feed?
Anybody try something like this, what were your results?

[waynesgarden]

Bees will likely gather it but is it really good feed? The sugar is what the bees need along with a moderate amount of water. Juice is mostly water and the bees will have to work overtime to evaporate all that useless moisture from the hive for very minimal returns. We raise the concentration of sugar in syrup in the fall to avoid that moisture problem late in the season.

And depending on the brand, who knows what else they are getting? Apple and Eve's 100% Apple Juice ingredients:

100% APPLE JUICE (FILTERED WATER SUFFICIENT TO RECONSTITUTE APPLE JUICE CONCENTRATE), CALCIUM GLUCONATE, CALCIUM LACTATE, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C) VITAMIN A PALMITATE.

Minute Maid lists 100% apple juice with added ingredients. Their website does not disclose what those ingredients are.

Wayne

[Michael Bush]

Mine love the pears that the yellow jackets cut open in a dearth and I've fed them strawberry syrup when I had about five gallons and no use for it. But fruit juice tends to give them dysentery. You're better off with sugar syrup. Especially late in the year when they may be using it for winter stores.