I’ve heard from more than one person, be them beekeepers or just people who think they know something about honeybees and beekeeping, that you should only use cane sugar to feed your bees sugar syrup in the spring or fall.
I haven’t read this in any of my beginning beekeeping books, nor was it mentioned in my beekeeping class.
White table sugar, which is what we use to feed our honeybees in the fall and spring, is made primarily from sugarcane or sugar beets
I looked at sugar packages at the grocery stores in my town, I noticed one brand did say cane sugar on the package.
So, why do some say feed your bees only cane sugar?
It may be that sugarcane has not been genetically modified (yet). But there are GMO sugar beets:
“Genetically modified (GMO) sugar beets are already planted on more than one million acres of farmland, spanning 10 different states from Michigan to Oregon. In fact, the Roundup-resistant gene is present in 95-percent of U.S.-grown sugar beet plants.” Treehugger Federal Judge Bans Genetically Modified Sugar Beets
So it seems prudent not to feed your bees GMO sugar if you can. Yet GMO sugarcane is on the horizon:
Commercial utilisation of GM sugar cane is possible in the near future in the USA and Brazil. GMO-Compass
Now my head starts spinning. All we want to do is feed our bees some sugar to get them thru the winter and early spring, and we have to contend with global GMO issues.
What do we do? Let us know your thoughts below: