How to Make Invert Syrup for Bees | Save 56%

How to Make Invert Syrup for Bees 

Save Up to 56% with Invertase invertobee

Most beekeepers in Europe pay between €1,100 and €2,000 per tonne for ready-made bee syrup. The actual cost of producing the same syrup yourself — same quality, same composition — sits between €480 and €550 per tonne. The difference is Invertobee invertase, a food-grade enzyme that lets you control every step: your ingredients, your concentration, your schedule.

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Why Invert Syrup — Not Plain Sugar?

Table sugar is sucrose, a disaccharide. Bees cannot absorb it directly. Before they can use sucrose as energy, worker bees have to break it down into glucose and fructose using their own digestive invertase enzyme. That conversion takes metabolic effort, and over a season, it costs the colony — shorter worker bee lifespans and energy diverted from brood rearing, foraging, and comb building.

Invert syrup skips that step entirely. The sucrose is already split into glucose and fructose before it reaches the hive. Bees absorb it with virtually no metabolic overhead, they accept it more readily than plain sugar solution, and — critically — it does not crystallise in the comb. That last point matters more than most beekeepers realise until they have dealt with rock-hard sugar deposits in winter frames.

Invert syrup works across the full season: spring stimulation, summer gap feeding, and autumn build-up. Below 10°C, however, bees cannot take liquid feed at all — for winter, you need sugar paste. 

→ How to Make Sugar Paste for Bees with Invertase

Why Make It Yourself?

Cost is the obvious reason, but it is not the only one.

Your ingredients

When you make your own syrup, you decide what goes in. Standard sucrose, organic certified sugar, locally sourced — your choice. There are no undisclosed additives and no formulation changes between batches that you only find out about after the fact.

Your concentration

A light 1:1 syrup at 50% for spring brood stimulation. A dense 2:1 at 66% for autumn stores. With Invertobee, you adjust the ratio to match what your colonies actually need at that moment — not what a factory decided to put in a drum six months ago.

Your process

You know when the syrup was made, at what temperature, and how long it inverted. You can repeat it identically next time or adjust. For anyone running more than a handful of hives, that kind of process control translates directly into consistency and confidence in your feeding programme.

What the Market Actually Charges

Two main categories of commercial bee syrup exist in the European market, and it is worth understanding the difference before comparing prices.

Sucrose-inversion syrups use the same underlying chemistry — enzymatic hydrolysis of sucrose into glucose and fructose. Some premium formulations retain a controlled portion of unconverted sucrose, reaching approximately 72% total sugar content. The resulting three-sugar blend (fructose, glucose, residual sucrose) is specifically designed to resist crystallisation in the comb, which is essential for winter colony survival.

Starch-hydrolysis syrups are produced by breaking down corn or wheat starch. Bees can digest these, but the composition is fundamentally different from sucrose-derived sugars and from flower nectar.

Invertobee enzymes needs only sucrose and water — the same base materials as the best premium syrups.

Current European market prices for ready-made bee syrups

Three Methods, One Enzyme Principle

All three Invertobee approaches work the same way: a food-grade invertase enzyme converts sucrose into glucose and fructose at controlled temperatures. No acid, no complex equipment, no compromise on the final product. The difference between the three options is speed, concentration, and crystallisation behaviour.

Option 1 — Cold Process, 66% Syrup, No Heating

Product: Invertobee 66-C

Pack: 350 g — enough for 1,000 kg of finished syrup | Price: €120

The simplest approach. Dissolve sugar in water at room temperature, add the enzyme, cover the container, and leave it for 36 hours. No heating, no energy cost, no equipment beyond a food-grade vessel and something to agitate.

Recipe — 1,000 kg of 66% invert syrup:

What it costs:

Compared to low-cost bulk syrup at €1.10/kg, that is €550 per tonne less — a 50% reduction. Against premium invert syrups starting at €1.60/kg, the saving starts at €1,050 per tonne.

Suited for: beekeepers without heating infrastructure, small and medium apiaries, autumn feeding runs, anyone who values simplicity over speed.

Option 2 — Warm Process, 68–70% Syrup, 12 Hours

Product: Invertobee 66-W

Pack: 300 g — enough for 1,000 kg of finished syrup | Price: €98

Heating the mixture to 50–60°C cuts inversion time from 36 hours to 12 and lets you push the sugar concentration to 68–70%. The higher density improves microbiological shelf life, which matters if you are producing in bulk and storing before use.

Recipe — 1,000 kg of 68–70% invert syrup:

What it costs:

Saving vs. low-cost bulk syrup: approximately €550 per tonne (50%). Against premium syrups: over €1,050 per tonne.

Suited for: commercial operations with basic heating capacity, situations requiring fast turnaround, higher-concentration syrup intended for storage.

Option 3 — Crystallisation-Resistant Syrup, Premium Equivalent

Product: Invertobee 50-C

Pack: 300 g — enough for 1,000 kg of base syrup | Price: €62

This is the most technically interesting option and the lowest cost per kilogram. It works in two stages: first, you produce a fully inverted 50% syrup using the cold process. Then you dissolve additional granulated sugar into that inverted base, bringing total sugar content to 65%.

Why does the two-stage approach matter?

The final product contains three sugars — fructose, glucose, and residual sucrose — at different molecular sizes. Those size differences physically prevent the ordered molecular stacking that causes crystallisation. It is the same principle behind the best premium industrial bee syrups, and it is why they stay liquid through winter temperatures where a plain sucrose solution would have solidified weeks earlier.

Step 1 — Invert the base:

Step 2 — Dissolve additional sucrose:

After 36 hours, add approximately 360 kg of granulated sugar to the invert syrup base. Stir until fully dissolved — the liquid readily absorbs it without heating. Final product: 1,320 kg at 65% total sugars.

What it costs:

Saving Against low-cost bulk syrup: €620 per tonne less — a 56% reduction. Against premium invert syrups: €1,120 per tonne..

Suited for:operations prioritising maximum crystallisation resistance, beekeepers aiming to match premium syrup quality at a fraction of the price, large apiaries with significant winter feeding requirements.

Side-by-Side Comparison

All costs assume sugar at €0.65/kg, current European market reference. Your actual savings depend on local sugar pricing. Water costs in Europe vary significantly by country, with the highest prices found in Denmark and Norway while Greece and Bulgaria offer some of the lowest rates. Generally,  Europe shows average rates around 4 € per cubic meter. Market syrup prices come from beekeeping supply retailers.

What the Numbers Look Like at Your Scale

How Invertase Works

Invertase — technically beta-fructofuranosidase — is the same enzyme bees produce in their hypopharyngeal glands to process nectar into honey. It splits sucrose into equal parts glucose and fructose, a mixture known as invert sugar.

What makes invert sugar valuable goes beyond simple digestibility. When a concentrated sugar solution cools, it becomes supersaturated — holding more dissolved sugar than is thermodynamically stable at that temperature. The system wants to shed the excess, and it does so by forming crystals. A speck of dust, an undissolved grain, even a gas bubble can act as a seed that triggers rapid crystallisation throughout the container or, worse, inside the comb.

Invert sugar disrupts that process. Glucose and fructose molecules are different sizes and shapes from sucrose, and when all three are present in solution, they interfere with each other's ability to stack into the ordered lattice structures that crystals require. Total solubility goes up, the supersaturated state becomes stable, and solutions that would otherwise solidify remain liquid — even at concentrations well above what pure sucrose can sustain.

Invertobee replicates this natural mechanism outside the hive. Your bees get feed that is already in the form they need, without spending colony resources on in-hive conversion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need special equipment?

No. A food-grade container, a stirring tool or agitator, and for Option 2 a thermometer. Options 1 and 3 need no heating at all.

What type of sugar works?

Standard granulated white sucrose. Beet sugar is the best source usually for use in apiculture.

How long does the finished syrup last?

At 66–70% concentration, microbiological stability is strong. Keep it in sealed food-grade containers, out of direct sunlight, in a cool place and it can be kept for months.

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At €0.48–€0.55 per kg versus €1.10–€2.00 for ready-made alternatives, the calculations are straightforward. One tonne saves you €550–€1,600. Five tonnes, €2,750–€8,000.

About Invertobee

We started in industrial enzymes and have been active in apiculture since 2015. Since then, Invertobee products have reached professional beekeepers across dozens of countries.

Our development priorities come from conversations with the beekeepers who use our products — not from a marketing department. Every formulation goes through field validation before it reaches the catalogue. And we price to make beekeeping more profitable, not less.

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