# What's wrong with eating honey made from sugar syrup?



## Andrew Dewey

You won't get sick or anything from "honey" made out of sugar syrup, but you probably won't get a superbly enjoyable experience for your palate as well - the taste as I recall from the distant past - is somewhat bland. "Honey" made from sugar syrup is a pale imitation of the real thing.


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## Gypsi

Suppose I mixed the sugar with grape juice instead of water? Grape honey?


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## waynesgarden

As Andrew said through his use of quotes, it isn't honey. 

Wayne


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## waynesgarden

Gypsi said:


> .... Grape honey?


No, you have sugar-added grape juice.

Honey is made from nectar. Anything else is not honey.

Wayne


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## Gypsi

Actually, I am a very new beekeeper and you should see what happens when I cook. I am also facing the prospect of feeding my bees until the drought breaks, which could happen next week, and could happen next June. If a bee makes it, it is honey, right? So I am considering varying the raw materials.


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## FindlayBee

Honey is not made from sugar water. Honey is made from the nectar of plants and processed by the honey bee.

Ohio's definition of what honey is:

“Honey” means the nectar and saccharine exudation of plants that has been gathered, modified, and stored in a honeycomb by honeybees.

This means that honey is not sugar water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, or a mixture of various raw materials.

It is a crime to sell Adulterated honey.


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## Gypsi

I not only will not have honey to sell, but am unlikely to have honey to eat. The bees will have to have it to survive. I am in a drought. I have worked my tail off to keep the bees alive and now realize I probably need to order pollencakes to feed them too. I bought a hive from a not terribly good beekeeper figuring she knew what she was doing, since she's been doing it for a while, and either she sold me her worst, or she isn't too good at it. Note, I am not revealing any names. I opened the hive to change the hive body with holes in it last night to discover that if the bees have one cup of honey stores, that is all they have. So no, I will not be selling any honey. The name of beekeeping will not be damaged by me trying to. And now I have to go back to my day job. Thank you.


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## aprici

I don't know about grape juice, but adding a bit of essential oils to their feed makes everything smell wonderful, and is good for them according to some studies. When I have to feed them to survive or when building up the population I add some lemongrass and spearmint according to a recipe I found on the internet. I made a copy of the recipe here:  http://aprici.com/drupal/node/14 and these were my observations: http://aprici.com/drupal/node/252.


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## PastorJ

Beeware,

Thanks for making a first year beek feel dumb. I thought I had the freedom to ask even silly questions on this forum in order to better understand my new hobby.

Thanks to those who've answered. I get it now.


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## RABray

Having read through this thread I thought" Wow are we really this intolerant of questions and free thinking?" I am amazed by these responses. I then got to the last response and see it has already been commented upon, oh well....me too. I too am a new beek and wondered what exactly would result from bees packing my sugar water away during this dry period we have experienced and now I'm glad I did not ask. For all the people who are intolerant of free thoughts and thinking outside the box ...Feuie! How do any of you think we climbed out of the cave and can now walk on the moon or talk around the world on a whim? Hey...if you get grape stores...send a picture! I have never seen such a thing LOL.


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## Konrad

OK...now you can try it...just scoop some out of the first honey store when you build up your brood box and report back to us.


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## woodguyrob

Newbee here, 

I don't think that was a silly question. In fact, might be interesting to taste it. It would give me an idea of how much flavor comes from the bee compared to the nectar. And I don't believe anyone was considering selling it.


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## Andrew Dewey

PastorJ said:


> Beeware,
> 
> Thanks for making a first year beek feel dumb. I thought I had the freedom to ask even silly questions on this forum in order to better understand my new hobby.
> 
> Thanks to those who've answered. I get it now.


Sorry if my comments were interpreted as condescending - they were not intended to be. I am nervous about passing this along, but feel I ought to. In our bee schools in Maine we are very upfront with new beekeepers explaining that they will probably not get any surplus honey to have for themselves or to sell their first year - as the bees need everything they produce to grow their hive and make it through winter. Is this tidbit shared in other locals, or is it a Maine thing?


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## PastorJ

Personally, Based on what I've read and learned here and from a multitude of books, I ve never had any expectations of harvesting honey the first year. What I found interesting was there was a unanimous consent that stores made from sugar syrup were only good for feeding the bees. I could find no real explanation beyond that, hence the question. I was simply curious.

Andrew, I thought your initial response was very informative. No condescending there.


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## waynesgarden

Gypsi said:


> If a bee makes it, it is honey, right? So I am considering varying the raw materials.


No. If a bee gathers nectar and processes it in the hive, it is honey. If a bee gathers anything but nectar and stores it in the cells, it is still only whatever the bee gathered. If "varying the raw materials" is desired, it can only be accomplished by varying the type of nectar sources available to the bees. Nectar is the only raw material you could possible influence.

We feed our bees syrup when necessary, but they are not making honey from it, they are storing syrup. 

Wayne


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## FindlayBee

It appears that I may have read the question incorrectly and answered based of that.

What I believe you are asking about is feeding your bees to keep them from starving and getting them ready for the cooler season.

They way I view sugar and sugar syrup is that it is bee feed. As beekeepers we lucked out in that sugar works very well as a feed for bees. However, this feed is not honey and should never be passed off as honey.

If your bees are in need of food, feed them. I bought two starter hives that I picked up in late June. They had stores, brood, and pollen stored in 6 frames. Each had 4 new frames for the bees to work on. When I set them up, I put on one additional medium box. They did not touch this box for what seemed like forever. The bee inspector suggested that I feed them and informed me that many first year colonies were not fed enough this year. He had seen many colonies that had their feed removed to early as we had very hot and dry weather. This caused colonies to remain small and not build up. After a week with no further activity in the new box, I decided to feed 1:1 sugar syrup. I made up 2 gallons and headed out to the hives. However, I did not get there until the following week. Those darn bees filled up those empty boxes in a week. The soybeans finally bloomed!

Anyway, don't let your bees starve.


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## Specialkayme

Andrew Dewey said:


> Is this tidbit shared in other locals, or is it a Maine thing?


It isn't a Maine thing.


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## PerennialAddict

I was curious recently and tasted some of the 'bee processed sugar water'... it tasted mostly like sugar. I could tell it was bee processed as it had a hint of a honey flavor to it... but definitely nothing like HONEY!!


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## Michael Bush

If you're going to eat "bee processed sugar water" why not just skip the step where you feed it to the bees and eat it as is?


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## Gypsi

I have a bit of a temper today. Took my truck in for a minor repair and found out I needed an engine. Sorry if I flew off the handle.

At any rate, I might experiment with a dark colored juice mixed in just to be able to tell if they are storing the sugar water or just eating it. There is no danger of me having honey to sell or selling fake honey. I was initially just joking (note the reference to what happens when I cook) but apparently it wasn't a funny joke. I will not be on the site as much though, I really have been jacking with bees when I have prep to do for work that pays. And now an engine to change.


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## BeeGhost

Passing sugar syrup as honey is not a good thing at all, however, that was not the question PastorJ asked. Before responding to a question being asked, maybe people should read the original question about 20 times so they understand it (it only took one reading for me). PastorJ asked if it would be a bad thing to harvest some of the sugar syrup to try, he didnt say he was intending to sell it. If he wants to harvest some sugar syrup to try, then go for it. Im also a new bee keeper and have tried the sugar syrup from some of the burr comb ive scraped off the frames, and it does infact, taste just like sugar water to me.

As for not expecting honey in the first year, maybe not in the cold climates, but here in California I currently have 1 super of honey for me ( they are working on another one), and that is after the bees have already filled a second 10 frame deep with honey. This is from a package installed in the first part of May.

And to those who got a little salty with PastorJ, dont forget where you came from, you were a new bee keeper with questions once also, even if your dad or grandpa taught you, you still had questions to ask, thats how we learn. I am the first bee keeper in my family and I either learn on my own or I can ask "stupid questions" on here and to other experienced beeks and learn from their experiences. 

Goodluck PastorJ and I hope all goes well with your hives!!.................Jason


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## Vance G

Gypsi, there are a lot of old crotchety beekeepers on this forum. Saying sugar syrup in a comb is honey is to them like saying Texas is just the empty part of Arkansas to you. a non sequitor. Feel free to try sugar honey because it sounds like you need to feed and it will be available for you. Who knows! It might help people with their sugar allergies! When you feed them, do not use an entrance feeder or put sugar water out to feed every bee and wasp in the neighborhood. It will just get your colonly robbed out. Put a bucket feeder or some variation of that theme on top of the cover. Search feeding bees and you will get a million ideas and instructons. Every one of them sworn as the most efficacious by a different crotchety old know it all bee keeper. Give yourself ten years and you can be one too!


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## Gypsi

Vance,
I'm such an old crotchety fishkeeper I just let the young ones figure things out for themselves - who knows, they might come up with something I never would have tried. I try to keep my mouth shut on reef forums, because I've been there, done that, and seen too high a body count. Actually I don't visit those forums often, it's boring, after 16 years.... But while there is a reef in my living room with a regal tang (aka dory), and a clownfish (aka nemo) and a blue damsel, and I am a sucker for lost causes, I do not try to make a living at them. I dropped out of saltwater for pay in 2005, after the tsunami that stirred up tons of new diseases. Never mind the radiation now in fish harvesting waters.

I need one good simple feeder design that I can build very quickly, because I am all out of time and money on the bee-cause. I'll search or post a query on a hardware forum in a bit. Work has to pick up, money has to come in the door, such is life. I scraped the mites and powdered sugar off my board this morning. Put it back together. But right now there is a bordman feeder hanging on the front of my hive as an open invitation.


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## Andrew Dewey

Gypsi said:


> Vance,
> I need one good simple feeder design that I can build very quickly


The best cheap & simple feeder I have found to be a 1 gallon glass "pickle" jar with a few nail holes punched in the lid, inverted over the inner cover, and protected from the elements by an extra deep. The last jars I got for free came from a sub & pizza shop.


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## Gypsi

Owing to the lack of an inner cover on this hive (I've bought one but it is not assembled), I'm a bit scared of this one. Thanks though. I searched and found one built with one by, a bucket, and a homemade super that I might be able to pull off. Nothing fancy square corners, no notches, the only tough part would be getting my circular saw to cut strips of oneby to support it, and hopefully home depot will just have some pre cut strips.


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## sqkcrk

Set the jar right on the top bars. Enuf of the holes will line up w/ the gaps so that bees will get to them. Then place an empty hive body on next and cover it w/ your cover.

If you have a wood bound wire queen excluder, that would be better. Then you could place 4 or 5 feeder jars on the excluder and really feed them.


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## honeyman46408

*What's wrong with eating honey made from sugar syrup? *


Dang you folks can come up with so many answers to a simple question 

PastorJ like you said you cant sell it but if you wiant to eat it eat it and disreguard the *JABS *


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## Gypsi

sqkcrk said:


> Set the jar right on the top bars. Enuf of the holes will line up w/ the gaps so that bees will get to them. Then place an empty hive body on next and cover it w/ your cover.
> 
> If you have a wood bound wire queen excluder, that would be better. Then you could place 4 or 5 feeder jars on the excluder and really feed them.


I have a wood bound screened vent top I made, but the screen staples onto the bottom of it. My frames are the plastic ones, don't want to overdo the weight. I have a plastic queen excluder. I do have the old deep I pulled off, if I patched up the corner holes with some woodfiller or caulk it wouldn't let lots of moths in and I could put it on around the feeder. But I also need to feed pollen patty. I'm looking at long term, from now until the drought breaks, hopefully by next spring.. My eunomys (sp) bush is about to bloom, and my crepe myrtle and vitex and turks cap are blooming, but I am surrounded by sand colored dead grassy fields. 

Got to go pick my spare keys up. For today, the Bordman is working. And the temps, they are rising.


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## Vance G

Just use a gallon zip lock baggie inside your spare box and put your pollen pattie right beside it.


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## Nabber86

BUT, what if you use a sugar solution that is close to concentration of nectar (80% water and 20% sugar)? Would not the bees suck it up into their honey stomachs, work on it with enzymes, regurgitate it, deposit it in a cell, and then concentrate it through evaporation down to around 18 percent water?

Of course this wouldn’t be “honey”, but it sure wouldn’t be a simple “sugar syrup” either.

Just a thought.


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## Michael Bush

>Would not the bees suck it up into their honey stomachs, work on it with enzymes, regurgitate it, deposit it in a cell, and then concentrate it through evaporation down to around 18 percent water?

Of course they will. They will invert some of it and dry all of it and you'll have clear tasteless honey.


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## Nabber86

So techncally it is "honey", it just doesnt have any of the floral aspects (taste and smell) of honey made from nectar.


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## saltcreep

I've been feeding since May, when I started these 2 hives with 3# packages.
I've noticed on some frames, they have the sugar stored.. it just looks different, you could shake it out of the cells. In other sections they have honey and/or brood stored, but they don't seem to mix where they store the honey with where they store the sugar.... at least as far as I can tell. 

I've tasted the honey in the other cells with my finger... and I am no connoisseur  but it tasted pretty good.. I think it might be from when the gob berry was blooming though. 

Edit: Should have phrased this as a question...
Am I seeing a separate area for the sugar water , or is this early "honey" that the excess moisture has not dried out of?



waynesgarden said:


> We feed our bees syrup when necessary, but they are not making honey from it, they are storing syrup.
> 
> Wayne


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## paintingpreacher

Hummingbird feeders have become so popular I wonder how much of this syrup is collected by the bees? When there is no flow the bees will cover them up.


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## snapper1d

woodguyrob said:


> Newbee here,
> 
> I don't think that was a silly question. In fact, might be interesting to taste it. It would give me an idea of how much flavor comes from the bee compared to the nectar. And I don't believe anyone was considering selling it.


I think it was a good question!!!!!!


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## Nabber86

I wonder how the bees ingesting sugar solution, enzyming it in their stomachs, vomiting it back up, and subsequent moisture removal in the honey comb affects the taste of the final product. Surely it would taste better than plain sugar water, but not as good as real honey.

I could also see unscrupulous (sp) people selling it as "Extra Light Honey".


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## sqkcrk

Nabber86 said:


> Surely it would taste better than plain sugar water, but not as good as real honey.


I don't know if that is necassarily so. Though it could be. 

If it does taste good, what would keep people from selling it? If it is good, should people be prohibited from selling it? It wouldn't meet Honey Standards of Identity.

But at least one person from FL, on this site, has produced and sold Peppermint Honey made from feeding candy canes to his bees. so, what's to stop a person?


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## sqkcrk

Nabber86 said:


> I could also see unscrupulous (sp) people selling it as "Extra Light Honey".


How come this last line shows up when I "Reply With Quote"? But it doesn't show up in the original?

Oh, I see. It shows up after I hit Refresh. Thanks.


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## Nabber86

I guess you could sell it if you labeled it as "The bottle contains fake honey made from sugar water. Not from nectar". Of course who the heck would buy it? And then you have flying under the radar thing goin on. Sure wold good if all states adopted Honey Standards of Identity. However even if they did, could they prove the honey didnt come from nectar? Seems like that would be hard to do. 

I would bet that sugar syrup, whether ingested by bees first or just mixed with real honey, happens more than we would like to think. 

Not sure about the quote thing.


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## PastorJ

nabber86 said:


> i guess you could sell it if you labeled it as "the bottle contains fake honey made from sugar water. Not from nectar"


rofl!


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## minz

We just noticed that on the KFC "honey" for the biscuits it was labeled as "honey flavored syrup". So who reads that close or is it a recent change?


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## Gypsi

sqkcrk said:


> I don't know if that is necassarily so. Though it could be.
> 
> If it does taste good, what would keep people from selling it? If it is good, should people be prohibited from selling it? It wouldn't meet Honey Standards of Identity.
> 
> But at least one person from FL, on this site, has produced and sold Peppermint Honey made from feeding candy canes to his bees. so, what's to stop a person?


 Peppermint honey - how cool!


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## Nabber86

Just think how much you could charge for a pound of honey if it was made from agave nectar that you fed to your bees.


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## sqkcrk

Nabber86 said:


> However even if they did, could they prove the honey didnt come from nectar? Seems like that would be hard to do.


Actually it not, supposedly. Tasting can tell the source. Especially, I believe, by the different types of sugars present and in what proportions.


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## sqkcrk

minz said:


> We just noticed that on the KFC "honey" for the biscuits it was labeled as "honey flavored syrup". So who reads that close or is it a recent change?


Been that way for a long time. Easily noticable to anyone who has tasted much real honey, whether they can read the label or not.


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## Nabber86

sqkcrk said:


> Actually it not, supposedly. Tasting can tell the source. Especially, I believe, by the different types of sugars present and in what proportions.


I know most experienced beeks would be able to tell just by tasting, but that would be hard to prove in court.


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## PerennialAddict

Michael Bush said:


> If you're going to eat "bee processed sugar water" why not just skip the step where you feed it to the bees and eat it as is?


heck no... that will never do. I want the real thing. I am happy to have satisfied my curiosity though.


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## sqkcrk

Nabber86 said:


> I know most experienced beeks would be able to tell just by tasting, but that would be hard to prove in court.


I misspelled testing. It's my FFS. Sorry.


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## waynesgarden

sqkcrk said:


> But at least one person from FL, on this site, has produced and sold Peppermint Honey made from feeding candy canes to his bees. so, what's to stop a person?





Gypsi said:


> Peppermint honey - how cool!


Not cool. at all. It is not honey, it is peppermint syrup.

I remember that thread. The person believed that somehow, if the candy cane syrup was fed outside the hive, it would become honey because he believed that if the bees collect it and bring it into the hive and store it, it is honey. He stated this is what his state (Florida) considers honey despite the fact, Florida has a very precise definition of what can be sold as honey, and that definition includes the word "nectar."

"Peppermint Honey" made from feeding candy canes is not honey at all, legally or tecnically. All definitions of honey include the word nectar, despite those that believe they can make up their own. 

Wayne


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## camero7

We have to acknowledge that all sugar honey is also a mixture of actual honey. I have many nucs being fed sugar water. They are also bringing in nectar. So the stored "honey" is a mixture.


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## sqkcrk

If they are bringing in nectar, why are you feeding at all? Seems like a waste and unnecassary.

Any honey harvested from your hive, if tested, would be found to be adulterated.


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## camero7

Want to draw comb and build up the nucs. Not going to pull anything. Without feeding they won't draw much comb this time of year.


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## sqkcrk

Makes sense.


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## hagane

some of the comments here made me laugh. 

This did make me think though...how DO You make sure your honey is good enough quality for the public? Would you also have to sample every single batch? What if you only used sugar water when you absolutely had too...and then how would you go back and make sure which honey was real and would you even have a bunch of sugar water fake honey then? How would you separate it from the good stuff? Maybe you had a drought that forced you to have some sugar water used... I've also seen someone's comment that the first few batches of honey you make can make or break your reputation?


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## rolftonbees

waynesgarden said:


> No, you have sugar-added grape juice.
> 
> Honey is made from nectar. Anything else is not honey.
> 
> Wayne


Honey can also be made from honey dew. honeydew honeys are some of the most prized honeys.


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## rolftonbees

Can I take some suet and mix it with protein powder and water and call it a steak. How about if I make a patty and grill it?

The suet and and protein, and water are in steak, so its like steak without the beefy components. .........right. I could explain that it was ultra filtered and that is why it does not have all of the beefiness. 

BTW, a few hundred million people who produce fake honey prefer corn syrup to cane sugar. Its closer in its sugar composition and the saccharides are already separated and ready for inversion.


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## KenNashua

waynesgarden said:


> No. If a bee gathers nectar and processes it in the hive, it is honey. If a bee gathers anything but nectar and stores it in the cells, it is still only whatever the bee gathered. If "varying the raw materials" is desired, it can only be accomplished by varying the type of nectar sources available to the bees. Nectar is the only raw material you could possible influence.
> 
> We feed our bees syrup when necessary, but they are not making honey from it, they are storing syrup.
> 
> Wayne


Wayne accurately stated exactly what the difference is. When you're feeding, they're just collecting it and moving it into cells for later.


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## gnor

New beek here, but I have to point this out. You feed a new colony drawing comb, to add weight in the Fall, or assist the Spring buildup. You normally don't feed when the honey supers are on, so syrup normally gets stored in the brood nest or made into comb. I should also point out that honey is a complex mix of sugars and other elements that comprises a complete balanced diet for the bees. Sugar syrup does not do this, so IMHO, the sooner they get to storing real honey, the better.


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## waynesgarden

rolftonbees said:


> Honey can also be made from honey dew. honeydew honeys are some of the most prized honeys.


Yes. In the years since I wrote that honey is only made from nectar, I've learned of state laws that now recognize honeydew as an alternative ingredient in honey.

I now say "Honey is made from the nectar of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which bees collect, transform by combining such substance with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store, and leave in the honeycomb to ripen and mature. Anything else is not honey."

This recognizes that honey produced by bees collecting the poop of plant-sucking insects can be considered honey in many, but not all cases. Example: Wisconsin prohibits the presence of honeydew in the top two grades of extracted honey offered for sale.

Wayne


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## Flintliddon

something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad. anything they haven't heard about and/or do themselves is stupid and a fad. they absolutely love to tell you why something is wrong. I've wondered what it is about beekeeping that lends this trait but I haven't any real answer.


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## waynesgarden

There are new things and then there are wrong things. 

What, precisely, do you see as a "new "idea in this thread? Fake or adulterated honey? Been a problem for years.

Wayne


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## jbeshearse

Flintliddon said:


> something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad. anything they haven't heard about and/or do themselves is stupid and a fad. they absolutely love to tell you why something is wrong. I've wondered what it is about beekeeping that lends this trait but I haven't any real answer.


you ever noticed how the new time beekeepers think that tried and true equates to old fashioned and inefficient? They think their ideas are fresh and new and that they are inventive genius? :lookout:

So let's continue with stereotypes


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## clyderoad

Flintliddon said:


> something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad. anything they haven't heard about and/or do themselves is stupid and a fad. they absolutely love to tell you why something is wrong. I've wondered what it is about beekeeping that lends this trait but I haven't any real answer.


One of our members has this as his tag line:

"Just because something is new to you, doesn't mean it is new, or revolutionary."


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## Harley Craig

Nabber86 said:


> So techncally it is "honey", it just doesnt have any of the floral aspects (taste and smell) of honey made from nectar.



It would be the equivalent of drinking wine made from sugar and water, sure itll get ya buzzed but ain't gonna taste that great, if you want to feed them sugar substance to allow them to convert to "honey" to taste for your self make it interesting and buy a bag of Dr pepper syrup for a fountain machine lol


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## Colobee

Flintliddon said:


> something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad. anything they haven't heard about and/or do themselves is stupid and a fad. they absolutely love to tell you why something is wrong. I've wondered what it is about beekeeping that lends this trait but I haven't any real answer.


With THAT, I hope you're not expecting to have some "oldtimer" explain it to you..:lpf:

Most of the time I enjoy sharing my experiences - good & bad. I'll make an exception for you, if that's your preference.


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## Michael Palmer

Flintliddon said:


> something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad.


Oh Boy


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## Dan the bee guy

Flintliddon said:


> something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad. anything they haven't heard about and/or do themselves is stupid and a fad. they absolutely love to tell you why something is wrong. I've wondered what it is about beekeeping that lends this trait but I haven't any real answer.


Ha ha ha all those old time beekeepers with 1000s of hives just think of all the time they could save with the flow hive:lookout:


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## RichardsonTX

So how do beekeepers who feed syrup to their bees keep that syrup out of their supers they put on? Experienced beekeepers in our club are always advocating feeding the bees in early spring to make sure they have plenty of stores during buildup until a good nectar flow starts. I think the bees move some of that stored syrup from combs up into the supers when they are put on to make more room for rearing brood down below. Am I wrong? This is why I think feeding syrup to production hives is not a good thing unless it's absolutely necessary.


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## AR Beekeeper

I think that would depend on how much syrup is fed and how close to putting on the surplus honey supers it is fed. Try putting food dye in your syrup and feeding different amounts to your bees early in the season, and then late in the season, and see where they put it.


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## Colobee

Generally, my bees are more reluctant to take syrup once the spring flows come. At that point it becomes a waste of time & resources. None of them get syrup within 2-3 months of the main flow. Packages would be the exception.


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## brettj777

Gypsi said:


> Actually, I am a very new beekeeper and you should see what happens when I cook. I am also facing the prospect of feeding my bees until the drought breaks, which could happen next week, and could happen next June. If a bee makes it, it is honey, right? So I am considering varying the raw materials.


It's not honey. It's NOT honey. It's not HONEY. It is not honey at all. It is sugar collected by bees. Basically the soda pop of the bee world. Not natural, not healthy for you, not worth it to even extract or use outside of the the hive.

You are new. So maybe you should actually listen when people tell you it isn't honey...not come up with new ideas to flavor and use it.

:scratch:


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## brettj777

Flintliddon said:


> something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad. anything they haven't heard about and/or do themselves is stupid and a fad. they absolutely love to tell you why something is wrong. I've wondered what it is about beekeeping that lends this trait but I haven't any real answer.


Says the guy who joined in February 2016....maybe you have been keeping bees for years....maybe not.

But that attitude wont get you or your bees very far.


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## Rader Sidetrack

>> You are new. So maybe you should actually listen when people tell you it isn't honey.

Uhhh, did you realize that post you quoted from _Gypsy_ is from *August 2011*?


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## RichardsonTX

AR Beekeeper said:


> I think that would depend on how much syrup is fed and how close to putting on the surplus honey supers it is fed. Try putting food dye in your syrup and feeding different amounts to your bees early in the season, and then late in the season, and see where they put it.


I don't feed syrup to production colonies in the spring. Do you know the answer?


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## Green Tractor

Flintliddon said:


> something I have noticed about old-time beekeepers: they are know-it-alls. anything new is stupid and a fad. anything they haven't heard about and/or do themselves is stupid and a fad. they absolutely love to tell you why something is wrong. I've wondered what it is about beekeeping that lends this trait but I haven't any real answer.


It's not just beekeepers. 

Wait till you discover the internet...


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