Commercial beekeepers often feed their managed bees, especially when establishing a new hive or after a honey harvest when supplies of a colony’s honey are low. The choice of feed is usually sugar syrup made from white sugar (bees cannot digest the molasses in brown sugar) or high fructose corn syrup.
Unfortunately, corn syrup and sugar syrup don’t have the nutritional value of honey nor the same pH and can alter the acidity of a hive and encourage the growth of pathogens.
“Counterintuitive as it sounds, honey is not a great option either,” says Kim Flottum in Common Sense Natural Beekeeping. “Because it can carry disease from the hive that made it to the hive you’re feeding, it’s actually potentially dangerous to feed honey to your bees.”
In cases where supplemental feeding is necessary, Flottum suggests using clean, raw, untreated honey from you own hive or a sugar syrup made from sugar cane.
“Supplemental feeding with honey, sugar, or corn syrup is in direct conflict with common sense natural beekeeping, so we recommend against feeding your hive. Interfering with the natural rhythms of the colony takes the hive out of sync with the surrounding environment and can be harmful to your hive’s nutritional health.”
