Free sugar but wary.

[beehappy1950]

I have some people that run a cotton candy business and say they have a lot of waste from the machine and some that doesnt sell. It does have dye in it and not sure it would be good for the bees. I would only feed it in the fall after I pull the supers just before they go to california. Not in the spring. Was wondering if anyone has any comments on this. Harold

[Kathyp]

I have no knowledge of what goes into cotton candy or whether it would be good for the bees, but anything in it would be food grade, right?  Bees have been known to get into all kinds of candy sugars and other than adulterating the honey, I have never heard of them being made sick from it.

[BeeMaster2]

Beehappy,
I ran a cotton candy machine in Bermuda back in the 80s. The only thing in it was sugar, dye and a flavoring.
What you are concerned with is if the sugar was burned in the process. If it never was cooked/heated it should bee fine.
You can expect your honey to bee colored and flavored. A beekeeper who placed his hives near an ice cone vender ended up with red honey.
Jim Altmiller

[Michael Bush]

It should be fine if you don't mind color and flavor in your hive.  You'll be able to tell what was fed...

[Ben Framed]

I watched a video by JP where he was doing a bee removal and found green honey. It has been years but I am thinking they determined it was from snow cones from a local zoo or something similar... I have seen bees at garbage cans retrieving such in such places...