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Using store bought honey (+ water) to feed summer bees

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beepro:
Hi, All!


I mention about feeding online store bought honey to our bees because we're in our yearly summer dearth now.  Fellow members here said
that there might be a chance that the honey is contaminated with AFB.   So it is not safe to feed to my bees.

My thought is to use sugar syrup at first.  But I don't want to dilute my real honey with sugar.   Then another idea came up.   What if I boil the
honey in water for an extended time say about 10 minutes.   Will this kill off the AFB spores?

So I use a small pot fill up half way with filtered water.  Then bring it to a boil and added one pound of online store bought honey while
mixing it with a wooden spoon.  Cover the pot and let the mixture boil on low heat for 10 minutes.  Set the stove  timer on.
When the time is up, transfer the pot on top of cool water to bring the temp. down a bit.  This will speed up the cooling process.
Then fill up quart and half pint jars with the honey water.  The last step is to add more filtered water into the jars to dilute it somewhat.  Wally!  Honey water is made!

For feeding, each hive already received a jar of honey water inside an empty nuc box.  I will continue this feeding to jump start the Italians queen's laying again.  Without this extra feeding, in 2 months when the mini Autumn flow is on, there might not be enough bees to overwinter this year.   My hives are shrinking in
population in this dearth now.  And since my IPM mite removal method has work so well on removing the mites (at the lowest point), now is the time for an early late summer build up.  This will be a 2 time bees emergence cycle before hitting winter.   I think this will be enough new bees to carry the hives over to next Spring.

If you are still concern about possible AFB contamination in using store bought honey then I have a method of raising AFB resistant queens should it happen at anytime or 3 years from now.  So let me know what is your thought on feeding bought honey water to the bees? 

ed/La.:
If you are not harvesting any more honey it does not matter if sugar syrup is stored in same frame as honey. Store bought honey probably came from China. No telling what's in it. Not pure honey. Probably sugar syrup and god knows what. Adding water to honey can ferment.  I could be wrong but I think honey water is a no no. What ever sugar syrup you give them will be gone by spring. Are you getting any rain there? If no rain there will be no fall flow. Better start feeding sugar syrup. Maybe

BeeMaster2:
AFB is not killed by boiling. Commercial honey from the store, even if it is pure honey from American hives is a mixture of honey from hundreds, if not thousands of hives. Most long term commercial beekeepers have been treating their hives with antibiotics for years to keep AFB under control. Commercial honey plants are extracting super after super, from numerous suppliers. All it takes is one hive out of thousands to contaminate every bit of honey that passes through this equipment to be contaminated.
Do not feed bought honey to your bees.
Jim

Van, Arkansas, USA:
Beepro, I like ed?s Idea of feeding sugar syrup instead of foreign honey.  AFB is rather unique in the bacteria produced spores.  As Jim stated boiling does not kill spores.

To kill spores one has to heat to 131 degrees centigrade with 25 psi for 20 minutes.  The time is the only variable.  That is the definition of sterile, again: 131C at 25 psi.  Spores, virus particles, all life is destroyed at those conditions.  There is one exception: Prions the agent of mad cow disease, Kuru, spongiform encephalopathy, proteinaceous infection particles, are all the same thing and the agent is NOT destroyed by 131C and 25 PSI.  Just pointing out an exception, there is no such worry with Honey.

Honey from your own apiary would cause me no real alarm.  Read about honey from China and you will be horrified.  Last year in 2017, in Chicago, approx 17 tons of Chinese contaminated honey was seized by custom agents.

Honey is basically glucose and fructose with pollen and precious enzymes.  Table sugar is also fructose and glucose, 100%.  There are specialized honey such as Acacia and Tupelo that have high fructose levels, 70% thus they rarely crystallize.  Just pointing out all Honey is not the same.

In short, sugar is not bad, it?s just fructose and glucose as the digested sugars, the exact same fructose and glucose in flowers.  There is no difference in the sugars.  Flowers also contain other products but I don?t wish to redirect this subject anymore than I already have.

So feed sugar syrup, it?s s lot safer than foreigh honey.

ed/La.:
If I remember correctly you go brood less for two months for mite control. If correct that is why your population is critically low. Your remaining bees are all old. No nurse bees. It will be interesting to see how this works out. They probably need a few frames of brood to jump start. Keep us updated

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