Walmart Great Value Sugar

[RayMarler]

In the past, I've used Walmart Great Value Sugar for feeding bees, and it always worked great. This past few weeks, I got a couple 25lb bags and was mixing it up, and it has a brown tint to the syrup, and the bees do not take it well at all. I tried feeding it twice, both times, bees don't take it well. So, I looked on the bag and all it says is Great Value Sugar. I just now found some old bags from years ago, and it says Great Value Pure Cane sugar.

I changed out my feeders today, dumping the syrup, and cleaning the jars and replaced the seals and most rings as they were getting old and rusty. I filled them back up with C&H pure cane sugar, which comes out with a very pale light yellow tint to it, nothing like the slightly darker brown tint to the Walmart sugar I'd just dumped out.

I did some research, I know that Molasses is a by product of white sugar refining, so looked up Molasses on Wikipedia.org and this is what I found...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molasses

(First paragraph on the page)
Molasses, or black treacle (British, for human consumption; known as molasses otherwise), is a viscous product resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies by amount of sugar, method of extraction, and age of plant. Sugarcane molasses is agreeable in taste and aroma, and is primarily used for sweetening and flavoring foods in U.S., Canada and elsewhere, while sugar beet molasses is foul-smelling and unpalatable, so it is mainly used as an animal feed additive in Europe and Russia, where it is chiefly produced. Molasses is a defining component of fine commercial brown sugar.
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Please note what it says about Molasses off of Beet Sugar Refining!
sugar beet molasses is foul-smelling and unpalatable, so it is mainly used as an animal feed additive in Europe and Russia,

OK, so here is what I think, supposition thinking, no proof...
I think Walmart Great Value Sugar is now made from sugar beets, and they skimp on the refining process because the Molasses by product is not as profitable for sale. This is just my thinking out loud, no proof OK?

Also, they used to state on the bag that it was pure cane sugar (I had an old bag in storage that I pulled out and checked) and now they do not specify AT ALL what source the sugar is from. Sneaky huh?

Anyway, just giving everyone a heads up on this. OH BTW, I can already tell that they are taking this new C&H pure cane syrup quite well, the bubbles are percolating up into the jars quite nicely after just a couple hours of putting them on.

[Dan the bee guy]

Thanks for the info looks like I'm buying my sugar from a beekeeping freind that has a bulk food store it might cost a little more but he cares about what he sells.

[AlbinoT]

I bought some last week and the bees went through it in 3 days with no issues.

[Scott Gough]

That is very interesting Ray. I have never had to feed very much but have always used Aldi sugar. I just looked and it does not say anything about cane sugar in the package. I will keep an eye on it to see how well they take it this fall.

[RayMarler]

I just came in from checking on the feeder jars and am glad to see that they are all half empty or more. The last two rounds that I fed that great value sugar, the bees would not take it well at all, even after a couple days some quart jars were still over 3/4 full. I'll never buy sugar again that does not state on the package that it is pure cane sugar.

[liljake83]

Ray Costco 50 lb bags of c&h sugar are pretty affordable

[jcase]

Ray Costco 50 lb bags of c&h sugar are pretty affordable

I noticed the C&H at costco are cheaper per lb in 25lb bags, oddly. Also easier for me to carry.

[minz]

We get 25 KG bags of organic sugar that is not fit for human consumption. It is brown in color and smells kind of like dirt or molasses sometimes when I mix it (broken bags and maybe some sweepigngs). I fill a bucket half full, hit it with a paint stirring drill until it is about the same level as the sugar (I understand it is about 2:3). I have put 200-300 lbs to them this last month due to our serious drought and they have no issues with it.

[sc-bee]

I e-mailed Kroger and asked about their $1.00 for 4lb sugar sale and asked beet or cane. My reply was it can be either depending on the supplier. So from what I gathered, if not marked cane sugar most likely beet...

[rookie2531]

Ray, are you heating the sryup on the stovetop?

[RayMarler]

I e-mailed Kroger and asked about their $1.00 for 4lb sugar sale and asked beet or cane. My reply was it can be either depending on the supplier. So from what I gathered, if not marked cane sugar most likely beet...

That is what I am surmising here as well, if it does not say pure cane sugar on the package then it's more than likely to be from sugar beet.

[RayMarler]

Ray, are you heating the sryup on the stovetop?

No, just hot tap water out of the kitchen sink faucet.

[DavidZ]

same here noticed brown tint in August, also the bags are not to full weight, off by a pound or 2 now, feeling ripped off...half the hives take a gallon in a day, the other half are slowly taking the syrup.
Bags say "Pure Cane Sugar" on my pallet, and I highly doubt it's beet sugar, beet does not turn brown ime, and bees take beet syrup just as fast as cane ime.

What I see plain as day is the amount of off color dirt in the bags that's my guess as to what's causing the brown.

[Phoebee]

We use the economy Walmart cane sugar in 25 pound bags. I have noticed the slight brown tint. I suspect they have just skipped one step in refining it from natural cane sugar, which is quite brown.

I've seen no evidence it harms the bees. We're advised against using brown sugar but this light tint can't amount to much. They seem happy to get it and have been thriving on our fall feedings of it.

[FlowerPlanter]

Been using Aldi beet sugar for several years now. Never had any brown tint. Quality control and walmart; words that are never used together.

Wait for the once or twice a year sale and get it around .89 cents a four pound bag no limit.