Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Aroc on March 25, 2019, 09:15:08 PM

Title: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: Aroc on March 25, 2019, 09:15:08 PM
Pretty sure this doesn?t make any difference but felt I should ask anyway.  We happen to have a small supply of raw sugar.

Any reason this won?t work to make syrup?
Title: Re: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: minz on March 25, 2019, 09:34:31 PM
we had raw sugar (organic) and it worked ok. I was brown and smelled of molasses so I only fed it when they could fly every couple of days. You could certainly see where it was stored, it looked dark brown.
We had to buy 200 lbs minimum and we went back several times. We did not note any negative issues.
Title: Re: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: Aroc on March 25, 2019, 09:46:27 PM
This is called Turbinado cane sugar.  I guess it just has some extra nutrients in it that processed sugar doesn?t have.  I can?t  imagine why it would be harmful.  It?s not the same as brown sugar.
Title: Re: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: paus on March 25, 2019, 09:57:26 PM
I had the same question a few years ago.  My info was very emphatic, " No raw sugar".  It causes the bees to have dysentery.  When I was a small boy before the middle of the last century my family were engaged in making Ribbon Cane Syrup, rhymes with slurp, The bees would come to drink the raw cane juice by the thousands.  As many as there were I wonder about , Maybe the juice is not concentrated, maybe cooking does something to make the sugar indigestible.  Some of our family made cone sugar in sugar houses.  Bees worked on this if it was not covered.  The best advice I got was "Don't use It.
Title: Re: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: Aroc on March 26, 2019, 12:14:09 AM
Pretty much anything besides white processed sugar is a no-no. 

I guess even those extra nutrients in the organic or raw sugar can cause trouble.
Title: Re: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: blackforest beekeeper on March 26, 2019, 02:30:45 AM
We do use organic sugar only. But not "brown" one. Light brown is fine, nowadays we got local sugar, which is as much as white. Maybe cause it`s refined in Switzerland?  :grin:
In long winters, brown sugar may cause problems cause they need to fly out to poop and can`t. I would desist.
Title: Re: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: BeeMaster2 on March 26, 2019, 08:01:45 AM
Every thing that I have read on raw sugar says it will cause problems. I would not use it.
Jim Altmiller
Title: Re: Making syrup with raw sugar
Post by: Michael Bush on March 26, 2019, 01:24:26 PM
>Pretty sure this doesn?

It does matter.  Do not use anything but white sugar.  What is nutrients for humans is not good for bees.