Invert sugar

[Jon]

A local company has started supplying a product called Invertbee which is of Belgian origin.
A 14k drum costs £11.70.
Anyone used this or something similar?
I haven't used invert sugar before but it does seem handy and I picked up a few this afternoon.

[Rosie]

I was interested in this when I saw your post so I googled for it to see if I could get some for next year and found that everyone is selling it for £25. Are you sure about your £11.70 price Jon?

[Jon]

Positive Steve. I bought 6 and a fondant for a total of £83.80.
I have the receipt in front of me.
I just googled it and I see what you mean. Looks like a bargain.


This is the company. (http://www.finlayfoods.com/contact_us.html)

Edit. Checked and the price is £11.85. 12.5k fondant is £12.70

[Neils]

Did you miss the guys at the SBA conference selling it, not tried it myself but had an interesting chat with them.

[gavin]

So it is 84.6p per kg. I heard of someone locally getting Apisuc - an equivalent product - at 90p per kilo. Not sure if that was via Murray or another source.

I'm currently making up syrup and adding thymol in spirit - the feeding not quite finished for the season. The thymol means that, like the inverted syrups, it will keep without fermenting. It also gives your bees some protection from Nosema. The best deal around here for granulated sugar is Tesco where you can get 5kg bags for £3.99. The 2:1 syrup (not sure if that is equivalent to Apisuc/Invertbee or not) costs 399/(5+2.5) = 53.2p per kilo.

At that rate I'd probably stick to supermarket sugar for now. It does take time to make up, but there is quite a price difference and your bees will get treated with thymol.

[Jon]

Did you miss the guys at the SBA conference selling it..

I did miss that stall and most of the others as I had no baggage allowance for the flight home.
So what was the chatter? Does it have magical properties with regard to winter feeding?
I see it is guaranteed GMO free so it should have anti troll properties.


your bees will get treated with thymol

I will be adding about 12ml of my thymol mix to each 14k container.

I bought about 65k sugar at 50p kilo last month but that is long gone.

I also bought 8 12.5k boxes of fondant a fortnight ago and half of that is gone too.

I have twice as many colonies as I usually have so have more feeding to do. Most of them are nuc sized so they will need feeding over winter.

In addition, September was dire weather wise and the ivy is 3-4 weeks late so extra feed needed this year.

[gavin]

Yeah, I've used about 60 kg sugar since August and can see me making a trip to Livingston for a car boot full of fondant before the year is out. I usually add fondant at the time of the oxalic treatment as if it goes on earlier it is more disruptive doing the oxalic dribble.

[Jon]

I put a couple of kilos on most of my nucs about 2 weeks ago and some of them are half way through it already. Most of them already had some liquid feed.
I am still not sure whether my queens have pretty much stopped for the winter or whether there will be one last ivy pollen fueled brood nest produced in October. If they start to raise more brood I will need quite a bit more feed.

It has probably got to the point of the year where you cannot overfeed.
I am always wary of feeding too much and restricting the laying space available to the queen.

[Neils]

I did miss that stall and most of the others as I had no baggage allowance for the flight home.
So what was the chatter? Does it have magical properties with regard to winter feeding?

My bad, it was Apisuc they were doing.

Never used the stuff myself but I know more and more people starting to on the basis that its "easier for the bees and they seem to love it", to quote on of our local beardys. Ambrosia is the main one round here because a few people buy it in bulk, was considering trying to get hold of a bulk order of one of the others and seeing if I could do anything with it given the general problem of getting enough of the stuff in any quantity.

And just for clarification, I came across the term "Beardy" to desribe one who is the local expert (whether you agree with the advice or not) about all things beekeeping and it's kind of stuck. I did have a bit of a debate as to whether the plural of a Beardy is Beardys or Beardies and I decided on the former

[Mellifera Crofter]

My bad, it was Apisuc they were doing.


Apisuc and Invertbee - made by the same company (http://www.belgosuc.be/en/product-range/list/cat/bee-and-bumblebee-feeding), I think.

[Neils]

Not me going mad then, that's certainly the right company that makes the stuff

[Black Comb]

That's an incredible price. I buy mine from the club @ £15 for 12.5 kgs of Ambrosia.
Following Murray's recommendation on the other forum I got a quote for a pallet from Apisuc - or to be accurate their UK agent. It worked out at 99p per kg. delivered. problem is it would last me 3 years or more.