[OOTB-hive] Introducing BeeCon

[Richard Esplin]

As a first season beekeeper, this is what I understand.

The common practice is for beekeepers to leave sufficient honey for their hives 
to last the winter (2 boxes), and only take honey from boxes that get filled 
beyond that.

The challenge is that the best honey producing bees (Italians) ramp up their 
brood production early in the spring before there are honey flows. Beekeepers 
of these bees will supplement their bees with sugar syrup until the nectar 
flows start. Once the nectar starts the bees will prefer the nectar to the 
syrup.

Sugar syrup is also used when transporting bee packages to new bee hives. The 
bees on the backs of trucks are transported with a few frames of honey inside 
their hives.

But I do understand the sentiment behind the analogy.

On Friday, May 08, 2015 01:00:50 Martin Cosgrave wrote:
> On 07/05/15 23:36, Boriss Mejias wrote:
> > - Monitor/Check that we are getting honey from the beekeeper and not
> > sugar. We want honey, not a placebo.
> > 
> > Please someone rephrase that so that it sounds better.
> 
> It sounds perfect as it is.
> 
> In the US there are beehives on trucks that get driven all around the
> country to serve as pollinators for the various crops (almonds for
> example); I believe these do mostly get fed with sugar water, and
> actually it's probably high fructose corn syrup as that is what is
> cheapest in the US.