white or brown

[super dave]

hi all
any one have any thoughts on the feeding of white sugar compared to brown sugar -- i have a little extra of the brown and i thought i would give it a try
thanks
dave
:mrgreen:

[Brian D. Bray]

NO, NO, NO!!!
Using brown sugar instead of white will give your bees disentary.  Brown sugar is not fully refined and has impurities the bees can't stomach (literally) so they get sick.  Good way to turn your beeyard the same color as the dandy lions.  You can lose the hive feeding them brown sugar.

A queen with the runs can't lay eggs properly.

[super dave]

thanks - there is only one toilet in the hive also and then there would be a heck of a line waiting to use it-so brown suger is out

[Tropic]

Most of our bees here in Costa Rica are fed in the rainy season and we use a brown sugar which is not actually very truly brown, but a sort of mixture of brown and white. It is raw cane sugar that has not been bleached lilly white and useless as a food supplement. To date we have not had any bee belly problems and everyone is happily buzzing about. In fact we have had some isolated reports of bee digestive problems when fed with pure white sugar, though I have not personally had a negative bee experience using either white or brown sugar. Cost factors do play a part since the brown sugar is less than half the price of white. Maybe some consideration should be given to what makes your brown sugar colored brown ... ours here is as natural as can be.

[JP]

Super Dave, this topic has been covered on this site before, check the archives, do a search on feeding white sugar vs brown, you will see lots of input on the subject. I have heard what Brian said in the last discussion about feeding brown sugar, that it does cause dyssentary.

[Michael Bush]

Raw sugar is not the same as brown sugar.  Our brown sugar is a mixture of white and molasses.  Molasses is poisonous to bees.

http://www.beesource.com/pov/usda/apidologie1978.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/usda/abjfeb1977.htm