IdealBee Complete® Apitotal IBC 1400kg syrup

01 · HOW TO FEED IT

Neat for stores; watered down to stimulate

Nothing to dissolve and nothing to heat. For topping up stores it goes in undiluted, and the maker suggests 350-500 g per colony every two or three days, depending on the strength of the colony.

If you prefer the sum in litres, knowing that a litre of water weighs a kilo: water (L) = kg of syrup × (77 ÷ target dry matter − 1), taking 77 % dry matter, the midpoint of the 76-78 % the maker declares. A 1:1 is 50 % dry matter, so that comes to 0.54 L per kilo — 756 L for the IBC, which leaves you 2,156 kg — and a 2:1 is 66.7 %, at 0.15 L per kilo. A stimulation feed sits between 30 and 50 % moisture, and that band runs exactly from 2:1 to 1:1.

The IBC is sold by weight, not by volume: it is 1,400 kg of thick syrup, appreciably less than 1,400 litres. This is the format for feeding a whole apiary without handling drums one at a time. One warning about diluting: thinned syrup does not keep the way the concentrate does, because more water means more risk of fermentation. Make up only what the colony will get through in a few days.

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, at a dry matter of 76-78 % (moisture 22-24 %). 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: