Thymolated syrup - who uses / have used / recipe / any issues?

[Japey Edge]

The two national hives guzzled it up. I left it on the nuc until first inspection a couple weeks ago and it slowly went down. Also in the later batches I added red food colouring (I've been toying with whether to mention this on open forum or not ) and for me that has really worked. They stored it and we could see straight away which frames had syrup with a red tinge in. This made it easier to identify what to take out before they got a super and moved it about.

All the combs look good and it seems none of the colonies were put off taking it down. I would imagine a drawback with this is even if a tiny bit gets in your supers and extracted, there'll be a thymol tinge to honey. This is what I really want to avoid. I want, just like most beekeepers, my honey to be as near 100% the purest of pure honey it can be.

[Chrisbarlow]

That's an interesting angle to take, red food colouring, can't say its necessarily a bad idea either

[NigelP]

I added red food colouring (I've been toying with whether to mention this on open forum or not ) and for me that has really worked. They stored it and we could see straight away which frames had syrup with a red tinge in. This made it easier to identify what to take out before they got a super and moved it about.

Real clever idea Jazz, well done.
Now for the Spanish Inquisition...what food colouring, what concentration /Large grin/

[Patrick]

For overwintering on brood and a half it would really help with those are they / aren’t they spring super frames.

I do have some yellow food colouring I could try....

[Japey Edge]

Well that went better than I expected

My first batch was small and I chucked it out because after I made it, I read that gelatine was in the colouring. Maybe overreacting but thought best to get a vegan friendly colouring at least, which is what I did for the remainder. It was just what we had in the house. Might have been out of date

I now have a bucket holding maybe 15 litres of red thymol syrup. Can I expect this to last until winter?

I think next time I may make it blue or purple, just definitely not yellow Patrick!!! - in fact there might be a "golden honey" colouring available, I'll find you a link

[NigelP]

I now have a bucket holding maybe 15 litres of red thymol syrup. Can I expect this to last until winter?

Yes, it will last for ever with the thymol.
I usually make some thin syrup and leave a 5 litre bottle at each out apiary so I have feed at hand in case ever needed.