A friend has about 3/4 of a gallon of honey that has slight fermentation. There's a very thin layer of foam on top, and the taste is a little off, but nowhere near full fermentation. She asked if it could be fed back to the bees. I told her that at the very least skim off the foam layer and set out a small container with some of the honey and see who comes to eat it and how long before it's gone. Would you feed it to your bees?
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I would feed it to a strong hive without hesitation if I had a hive that needed stores for winter, and I would definitely not heat it first!
Otherwise, I would make mead.
Joe
I would feed it to a strong hive without hesitation if I had a hive that needed stores for winter, and I would definitely not heat it first!
Otherwise, I would make mead.
Joe
From: mad...@googlegroups.com <mad...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Greg V <voro...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2016 4:35 PM
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [madbees] Feeding fermented honey to the bees
I would not give it as-is.
I would heat it up first to pasteurize and see if that helps to evaporate the alcohol out
And maybe even heat to boiling if the smell stays.
Not much to loose at that point and might as well play it safe.
Just recently reused some slightly fermented syrup.
I did boil the hell out of it though - just sugar water; not much to loose.
They took it fine.
On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 4:18 PM, Marcin <mar...@chicagobees.com> wrote:
A friend has about 3/4 of a gallon of honey that has slight fermentation. There's a very thin layer of foam on top, and the taste is a little off, but nowhere near full fermentation. She asked if it could be fed back to the bees. I told her that at the very least skim off the foam layer and set out a small container with some of the honey and see who comes to eat it and how long before it's gone. Would you feed it to your bees?
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There isn't/wasn't any pressure in the bucket ( she keeps the honey in a 2 gallon bucket ). There isn't any debris in the honey, it was put through a strainer some time ago. There's just a very thin layer of foam on the surface and very light whiff "fermentation". If it was me I would do what Joe suggested and feed it to the strongest hive over a course of a week/2 weeks.
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If it is fermented a slight amount, the bees will clean it up and make it right well before they need it in winter. Processing nectar into honey is what bees do as their primary business. Do you think a hive has never had some nectar ferment in the comb a bit before they finished it??
Overheating honey can actually make it toxic to bees. Sorry Greg. Try googling hydroxymethylfurfuraldehyde among other things. I wouldn't eat honey that was heated as you described, and I most certainly wouldn't feed it to bees.
Joe
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I wouldn't buy honey from the store. Not only is it pasteurized, but you can't trust a lot of it to actually be real honey.
Beyond HMF, heating changes many other things. If you don't believe that, heat some honey up and taste the difference for yourself. What is the point? To kill the yeast that has started fermenting it? Those are the same natural yeast found in raw honey, found in the hive, the same yeast that will end up in it again. The yeast will not harm the bees, nor will a little bit of yeast waste-product.
The only risk here is in heating it, i.e. what you might do to change it in a way that could make it harmful. Heating honey at home to try to pasteurize it is an experiment at best for most beekeepers.
If you want to be 100% "safe", just don't feed it to the bees. I would gladly feed it to mine as it is.
Joe
Yes, it is generally believed that fermenting/fermented honey may cause diarrhea. However, diarrhea or dysentery is typically only a problem when bees aren't able to make cleansing flights, generally during winter. They hold it in as long as they can, but end up pooping inside the hive if they don't get a warm day.
By feeding it now, when the bees can eliminate outside the hive as needed, the problem is avoided. Furthermore, the honey is re-processed by the bees and is no longer at risk of causing issues if/when they eventually do consume it in the dead of winter.