Black Scum in Sugar Water

Beekeeping - Basics
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Hi there, I’m finding this black scum in my sugar water. Is this normal, or a problem? I’ve been straining it out when I fill the feeder, but it comes back o er a few days. My white bucket of sugar water is kept in our garage which, has some ambient light and averages around 70-75f. That said, I found it in the feeder after a few days also and there was none in it when I filled it.

Thanks!

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Is your sugar water fermenting? I don’t feed with sugar water, however I recall reading that people mix up fresh sugar water every time they feed.

I would suggest to only mix up what you think they’ll use for a couple of days

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To add to what @JeffH has said, I do a few things.

  1. Don’t mix up more than I need for the current feeding. For me that is between a quart and a gallon (1 to 4 liters for our international friends)
  2. This is just me, but I acidify it with ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) which you can buy online in powdered form. I take the pH to about 4, which is similar to nectar. I am a biologist, lab scientist and a doctor, but you can do this too! Just buy some pH paper from Amazon, then sprinkle in the the Vit C once the liquid has cooled. The acidity prevents mold growth, for a while (a couple of weeks).
  3. I clean all of my feeders with dilute bleach before using again. Rinse them out thoroughly and dry them. That will kill off the mildew spores
  4. One other thing I have tried, and it works, is adding a little unscented household chlorine bleach to the feed. I don’t like to do it, as it isn’t a natural food for the bees, but it does keep the syrup clean for up to a month. The bees drink swimming pool water all the time, so a little bleach is probably fine

Just some extra ideas for you :wink:

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Thanks Jeff, I think you might be right. I’ll try only mixing a small amount!

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Wow, LOTS of great info here- Thank you so much!!
I do have an Apera meter (LLC-A13719 PC60-Z) (link below). I’m assuming I could use that in sugar water, right?

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Yes you could. Nice piece of kit! :heart_eyes:

By the way, don’t use chlorine bleach and ascorbic acid in the same mix. Nasty vapors would likely result :astonished:

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Excellent! Thanks for the note about not mixing bleach and Vitamin C, I probably wouldn’t have thought about that! :+1::blush:

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I think our feeder takes about two gallons of sugar water. Our local beekeeper is the one that told us the best way to mix the sugar water, but he obviously uses a lot more than we will with one hive. His recommendation to make it easy math is 25lbs of sugar to one 5 gal bucket. Mix with warm water (1:1).

Since sugar and water have different density’s, and I’m assuming I’m mixing to get the final liquid concentration to 50/50 (water/sugar), how do you recommend mixing smaller quantities?

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I have a kitchen scale. Of course, you are right that granulated sugar and water have different densities, but this isn’t rocket science :wink:

I normally heat the water to a boil, deciding how much to make. For me, that is usually 2 quarts of water. I then turn off the heat completely. If you add 4lb of sugar to that (2 quarts of water weighs 4lb), you will have approximately 1:1 syrup. Once it has cooled, adding between 5 and 25 grams of ascorbic acid in steps (you can approximate with a teaspoon ~5 grams per scoop), stirring well, you can get the pH to 4 and there you go. Sorry I can’t give you precise amounts on the Vit C, but your water will likely be very different from mine :blush:

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Gotcha, you answered my question which, is to use the weight of each. Easy peezy as I have kitchen scales also! Thanks again so much for sharing your knowledge, I really appreciate it!!

Have a Great 4th!! :blush::+1::+1:

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Thank you and back at ya!

Weights rule in my kitchen, as I grew up in the UK where we used weights for cooking, not cups :blush:

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I’d love to follow you, but I guess I’m being technically challenged because I don’t see anywhere to tag you…?

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This forum doesn’t work like Twitter/X or Instagram, but if you want to see what I have posted in the past, just enter @Dawn_SD into the magnifying glass search tool at the top of the forum and it should list my posts :wink:

By the way, thank you for your service! I love US Navy guys. I spent a few months working as a doctor at Balboa in San Diego. Great teamwork, excellent medical staff.

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Gotcha, will do. I’ll bookmark this topic so I can at least find our conversation in the future! :blush::+1:

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Hi Dawn, I’m wondering if it’s necessary to clean the feeding tray each time I add sugar water? It seems pretty clean, but not sure. Your thoughts?

Here’s the feeder we use: 8 Frame Ceracell Top Feeder | Beekeeping Supplies - Mountain Sweet Honey

Thanks in advance! Shawn

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Yes, definitely clean it every time. You don’t need to bleach it unless it had mold in it, but dish soap and warm water is good before refilling it. Needless to say, rinse it well before refilling! :blush:

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Will do! Thanks for the quick response, I Really appreciate it! Have a Great Sunday :+1::blush:

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Turns out, after I added some brood boost to my sugar mix, the ph of the sugar water was 6.25. I added 1/4tsp of ascorbic acid and it dropped to 4.07. :clap::clap:

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