# Honey from sugar syrup, Is that a good idea?



## Hoxbar (Mar 1, 2010)

The weather here in Oklahoma has not been real great for honey production. I started out doing good but now things are falling off. Not filling up my supers and stuff like that, not much of a honey flow right now. 

Today while talking to a beekeeper he suggested I feed sugar syrup to my bees, so they would make honey from the syrup. I would rather have "real" honey and not "sugar" honey. I had a hive rob some sugar syrup from another hive this year and the honey they made looked pretty but it was just from syrup.

Does anyone feed sugar syrup to their bees to make honey from that? Is this a good idea? I'm not worried about cost, I'm doing this as a hobby and not for income.


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## Macon (Nov 8, 2010)

You can feed them sugar syrup if they will take it. It would be good for them but not so much for actual "honey" production. 

If they take it give it to them. If they dont, then they are still finding a source of flow that is better for them.


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

> Does anyone feed sugar syrup to their bees to make honey from that?


The Chinese. By definition that is NOT honey and should never be sold as such.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

...we've had domestic honey tested and found some of it to be 30% beet sugar.

If the goal is to focus on the quality of honey or the adulteration of honey, then it makes sense to focus on these issues.

If one focuses on the country of origin as an indication of quality, it gives a lot of bad actors a free pass....not productive.

deknow


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

Guess I should have used a smiley.....it was tongue in cheek.


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## Bsweet (Apr 9, 2010)

IMHO if you are feeding syrup to the bees for them to store for their use go for it,but if you do it to finish off your supers then no all you will end up with is honey and sugar syrup mix. Jim


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

I think I would question anything the beekeeper says. Doesn't matter if he's uninformed or unethical, his advice is unreliable.

Wayne


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

For human consumption - No
For bee consumption - regularly done, especially when a colony is started or needs to build up stores before winter.


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## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

Since bees "Store" the sugar syrup in the brood box won't some of that make it into the honey supers anyway? IOW will the honey contain some syrup honey if you feed in the spring anyway?

~Matt


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## Bsweet (Apr 9, 2010)

Most of us do not extract honey from the brood box. The spring feeding is usually done BEFORE the flow starts and before any honey supers are installed. Once the flow starts the bees stop taking the fake stuff and go for the gold. Jim


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