Is this a bad idea?

[Rob Sandberg]

I am in Southern California and have an abundance of oranges. One Saturday I cut some oranges into 3/8
Slices and placed them about 150 feet from my hives.  The bees seem to hollow out bulb shaped circles and enjoy the juice. Is this a bad idea? I have done the same to lemons with same results. Will I regret this?  Thanks in advance for your time and input

[Bees In Miami]

Rob:  We have bunches of Mangoes and citrus around here, and for the most part, when they fall, they often split open.  I let the bees go to town on them.  The Opossum usually take care of the remnants.  I have walked up on split mangoes that were literally wall to wall with bees, and they are going to town!  Just my opinion?  Let them go to town...but I think you are putting more effort into it than you need to!   The bees can accomplish a whole lot more than we give them credit for.   ;)  I just try to make sure I pick things up before they start to ferment....(then I think I am depriving my girls of a fun night!)   :-D

[Finski]

.
Oranges have 9% sugar in juice.
Mangoes have 15%

Lemon has 2% sugar

[BlueBee]

And sugar beets have 20% sugar.

The only problem with bees sucking on sweet things (that I'm aware of) is they may start brooding. 

[ShaneJ]

This is very interesting.. I have two large mango trees in front of some of my hives and we never pick the mangos as they don't taste nice. I have never observed the bees feeding on the mangos though so I'll have to check.

This may raise some concern here in Australia though as I am led to believe most bee keeping clubs frown upon leaving sugar or honey out for the bees to collect. I'm told this teaches the bees to rob  :roll: :-D

[Finski]

.
One year in Finland it was very dry late summer. Bees had no flowers to forage, so they sucked raspberry juice on surface of old berries.
Their abdomen were red when I opened the hive and there was some red honey in combs.
Wasp use to make same thing in autumn.


Bees did not suck raspberries like from lemonade bottle. They licked sweet surface.

[Bees In Miami]

ShaneJ...Perhaps Mango here, and Mango there are two different things?  Ours are amazingly sweet orange flesh, and very marketable for humans.  I have never seen the slightest behavior to indicate robbing.  In fact quite the opposite.  I may be proven wrong in the future, but I find once the mango start to drop, the foragers usually have bellies full of a bunch of other stuff, too.  No robbing here that I have ever seen.  Won't be the first time I am wrong though.  Mango is one of my favorites here!  Honey robbing on the other hand, is a whole different ball game.  I see no harm in allowing the bees to eat the fallen fruit they actually helped to pollinate.  No problems thus far.  They are always very peaceful. 

[ShaneJ]

We have a few hundred varieties of mango here in Australia. The two trees I mention that we do not pick are not a very good eating variety, they are more for chutney etc. We have another 8 mango trees down the back of the property that are a whole different story though. They get picked as soon as they're ready.

[Michael Bush]

All in all bees do best on nectar which is mostly sucrose and water with some trace minerals and trace organic acids.  Fruit juices have a lot of other solids that are hard on the bees' digestive system.  They will gather fruit juice with or without your help, but usually only if there is no nectar available.

[Kathyp]

I'm told this teaches the bees to rob

robbing is natural behavior.  you don't teach them to do it, or not.  you can encourage the robbing of your own hives by not using good sense in how, when, and, where you open feed.  open feeding of anything should be done away from the hives.  Rob did it right by feeding away from the hives.

[bailey]

I have a lime tree in the back yard and every year I find swarms working on the old limes that fall and start to rot.  I have found queens in the swarms often and still haven't figured out why they are doing this. 
But I sure don't mind it!   
They all go to nucs just like any other swarm :-D
Bailey

[Finski]

  I have found queens in the swarms often and still haven't figured out why they are doing this. 

Africanized mini swarms which seek for hives to occupye  :roll:

[edward]

Bees had no flowers to forage, so they sucked raspberry juice on surface of old berries.Their abdomen were red when I opened the hive and there was some red honey in combs.Bees did not suck raspberries like from lemonade bottle. They licked sweet surface.

:bee: Now things are starting to fall into place and this might bee the answer to why every summer for about two weeks my larvae turn from white to  :shock: pink  :shock:

The first time I saw  the pink larvae I thought OMG there's something very wrong here  :-x Then the next time I inspected the hive they were white again, this has been a recurring in the past years.
No one has been able to answer why it happens. Many of my bee yard are surrounded by wild raspberries and this could bee the answer to this mystery  ;)

mvh edward  :-P