IdealBee Complete ApiTotal 12kg (2kg bags)

01 · HOW TO USE IT

One bag per colony, on top of the frames

Here the format is the argument: the 2 kg bag sits open on top of the frames, in the part of the hive the bees keep warm, with nothing decanted into a feeder and no pool for them to drown in. One bag per colony, and the empty comes straight back out.

The box holds six 2 kg bags, twelve kilos in all: six colonies in one go, or one colony refilled six times.

02 · THE COMPOSITION

Fructose in front, and no more water than needed

The maker declares 36-38 % fructose, 32-34 % glucose, 8-11 % sucrose and 7-8 % other sugars (dry matter 76-78 %, moisture 22-24 %), with the vitamins, minerals and amino acids on top. It arrives inverted, that is, with most of the sucrose already split into the simple sugars a bee takes up without any prior work — the figure worth reading on any syrup's data sheet.

03 · WHAT SITS ON THE SUGAR

Vitamins, minerals and amino acids — and what this isn't

This is what separates this line from the other two. It adds B-group vitamins, minerals and three amino acids — tryptophan, methionine and lysine — along with a plant infusion (2 %: rosemary, thyme, nettle, mint, calendula, chamomile and wormwood). And here we have to be explicit, because the maker's own literature goes further than a feed is allowed to go: this is a complementary feed, not a veterinary medicine. It neither prevents nor treats any disease of the colony, it does not stand in for hive health work, and no such role is claimed for it here. What it brings is energy and a load of micronutrients; pollen and hive health are their own jobs.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Which of the three IdealBee lines

All three come in several formats, and what separates them is what sits on top of the sugar: