MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 129seemed to be storing something in the warm days of February,before there was any blossoms of any kind. (Georgia.)A. Honeydew may come almost any time pJants are growing;but I supect your bees are working on something else than honeydewin February.Q. Will bees work on honeydew during a flow from clover orbasswood?A. Not to any great extent. They prefer the better articleoffood.Q. The grading rules of Colorado class honey contaminatedby honeydew as not permitted in shipping grades. How is honeydewdetected in the comb?A. I'm not sure that Colorado officials have any particularrule as to how it is to be detected, but a good guess can be madeby both looks and smell while in the comb, and if necessary itcan be sampled by taste. It generally has a cloudy, dark lookthat honey does not have, and its smell is peculiar. Even if acertain sample of honey could not be positively identified ashoneydew, if it were so much like it as to make it difficult to decide,I suppose it would be ruled out.Q. My bees are working on honeydew, the trees just glisteningwith it; the leaves look as if they were varnished, and in themorning when the dew is on the bees work "to beat the band." Ihave several hundred pounds of it in the supers. It is bad-lookingstuff and not fit to eat or sell. What can I do with it? Will it doto feed bees?A. It will do to feed to the bees in the spring or any timewhen they will use it for brood-rearing; but don't give it to themfor winter stores. Such honey may be sold for baking or mechanicalpurposes or it may be made into vinegar. It is also used bymanufacturers of chewing tobacco.Q. (a) Why is it that in honeydew seasons some coloniesgather more honeydew than others? Such has been my experience.(b) Do certain races gather less honeydew than others? Ihave been told so.A. (a) Possibly there is a difference in colonies as to theirpreference for different sources. One year I had one or morecolonies that gathered honey of light color while the rest gatheredbuckwheat. It might be that they strongly preferred thelighter honey, or it might be that they just happened on thelighter honey in some particular place.(b) It- is possible.