Dariusz:
>I don't get it.  Must bees never be fed sugar to produce honey of
>sufficient quality?  What quality am I getting if the bees are fed sugar
>in the winter season and not otherwise?

Relax, Dariusz ;) There's DDT at the north pole and in your fruits and
veggies. Your seafood has all sorts of modern toxins. The plastics around
you are outgassing. Any meat you eat is probably eating some sort of
non-fresh-grass as a feed. And you'll likely die in a car crash anyway...;)

>Given that I am eating only
>honey collected during the time they were not fed sugar (obviously).

Feeding sugar to bees is kinda silly for those beekeepers. They end up
having a harder time with disease and the general health of the hive than
if they would just leave the bees more of their own honey for the winter
(and they have the hassle of feeding sugar itself). In general, it's a
short-sighted, greedy practice but it isn't exactly as evil as ORKOS might
have you believe. You can reasonably assume that much of the "toxins" in a
winter sugar-fed hive have been detoxed by summer and fall, especially if
there was a heavy nectar flow in spring. It is really a matter of hive
health not toxins.

You are in Montreal or Canada somewhere? I had no trouble finding great
beekeepers (no sugar feeeding) in Wisconsin--pretty much the same climate.

>What else can you feed them in winter?  The honey they collected in other
>seasons?

My understanding is that many beekeepers feel that feeding another hives
honey instead of sugar increases the chance of raiding (by other colonies
and wasps) in the spring and spreading disease in general. Further, there
are some kinds of "pesticides" in honey which prevent ants from
invading/enjoying honey. (It was always a surprise to me that when we kept
a 8 pound super of comb honey out on the counter ants would have nopthing
to do with it--though bees were quite interested if they had access.) Some
think that another hive's honey might be more problematic for a hive than
sugar. Yet I know of at least one beekeeper who had no problems in doing
feeding some spare honey instead of sugar. He was an ethical beekeeper and
there was a particularly long winter and a spring drought and his hives
would've died w/o something. Even the most ethical beekeeper may resort to
sugar-feeding in such a situation. Just as medications may be given to a
pastured cow which contracts pink-eye, or whatever.

Feeding a hive it's own honey is even more ironic--why bother saving honey
(after harvesting and extracting--lots of work) to feed the hive later
instead of just leaving it on the hive and never (over)harvesting.

>Obviously, the bees will be affected by the sugar they get during winter,
>but if they collect only from flowers to produce the honey one gets in
>other seasons, is that a big transgression still?

Have you searched the archives yet? Hmmm... ;)

If you want to pig out on honey without worry than do some research, do
some legwork: find a beekeeper who is not feeding sugar and buy comb honey
from him/her. Get out of the stores and into the Yellow Pages "(beekeepers"
or "apiary" or yes, you guessed it, "honey") of your city, the surrounding
cities, etc. and call until you find someone who meets your standards--then
pay a fair price for their harvest. (There is a beekeepers newsgroup as
well.) Or call back the fellow who told you about some of his suppliers
feeding honey, and ask him for leads (tell him you are after a super of
comb honey from a non-sugarfed hive and see if he will help you out).
Understand that most local beekeeping operations are a small business (or
supplemental income even) and nearly every beekeeper I've ever connected
with (often farmer's markets or label contact information as well as the
yellow pages) is pretty happy to know someone actually cares about the
quality of their honey. Just liking comb honey endears you to many
beekeepers. Or trade some labor for some honey--get out there and see what
a hive is all about--most beekeepers have some very busy harvesting
periods. Or help with the extraction for a super or two. And then: ask
about brood...=:O

Be warned however that it is almost a law of instincto that whenever you
buy a sh-tload of a particular food you will then lose your taste for it ;)
Your honey pig-out days will be over eventually if you keep eating your
fill. Enjoy them while they last...

Secola  /\  Nieft
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