Dextrose 5kg

01 · WHY DEXTROSE AND NOT ICING SUGAR

The difference is in what it does not contain

They look alike and are not alike. Commercial icing sugar nearly always carries an anti-caking agent — usually starch — so it does not set in the bag: an addition the bee does not digest and which ends up as filler in a patty. This dextrose is crystallised D-glucose with a spec purity above 99.5 % on dry matter and a maximum moisture of 9.1 %, and nothing else. Glucose is also the sugar the bee takes up most directly, with nothing to split first.

02 · WHAT PART IT PLAYS IN A MIX

It gives body and raises solids; it does not remove water

It is a technical nuance that saves a lot of ruined paste: the powder does not “absorb” water from the mix; what it does is increase the proportion of solids and with it change the texture. In a typical protein patty the base is inverted syrup, the protein fraction is soy flour, and dextrose takes up roughly a quarter of the mix, giving body and energy. Weigh every ingredient and follow a tested formulation: adding dextrose by eye leaves a paste too hard, which the colony works through slowly or simply leaves.

03 · WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

An energy ingredient, not a complete diet

It supplies glucose and 3,640 kcal/kg of gross energy, and that is where it ends: it covers no protein, fats, vitamins or minerals. Before formulating, be clear what you are after — maintaining stores, achieving a particular texture, or energy support inside a wider diet — and match the amount to stores, colony strength, temperature and purpose. Plus one management rule that has nothing to do with the product: do not feed during a commercial flow or with supers on for harvest, because what you give ends up stored and alters the honey.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is classified as a feed raw material and sold for preparing bee feed. Keep the container closed and dry, use clean utensils and close it again as soon as you measure: it is hygroscopic and cakes with ambient moisture. The original technical sheet relates to industrial sacks; in this repacked 5 kg format what governs is the batch, date and conditions on the label you receive, not the shelf life of the original sack.