THOUSAND ANSWERS 129 
seemed 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 plants are growing; 
but I supect your bees are working on something else than honey- 
dew in February. 
Q. Will bees work on honeydew during a flow from clover or 
basswood? 
A. Not to any great extent. They prefer the better article 
of food. 
Q. The grading rules of Colorado class honey contaminated 
by honeydew as not permitted in shipping grades. How is honey- 
dew detected in the comb? 
A. I m not sure that Colorado officials have any particular 
rule as to how it is to be detected, but a good guess can be made 
by both looks and smell while in the comb, and if necessary it 
can be sampled by taste. It generally has a cloudy, dark look 
that honey does not have, and its smell is peculiar. Even if a 
certain sample of honey could not be positively identified as 
honeydew, if it were so much like it as to make it difficult to de- 
cide, I suppose it would be ruled out. 
Q. My bees are working on honeydew, the trees just glistening 
with it; the leaves look as if they were varnished, and in the 
morning when the dew is on the bees work “to beat the band.” I 
have several hundred pounds of it in the supers. It is bad-looking 
stuff and not fit to eat or sell. What can I do with it? Will it do 
to feed bees? 
A. It will do to feed to the bees in the spring or any time 
when they will use it for brood-rearing; but don’t give it to them 
for winter stores. Such honey may be sold for baking or mechan- 
ical purposes or it may be made into vinegar. It is also used by 
manufacturers of chewing tobacco. 
Q. (a) Why is it that in honeydew seasons some colonies 
gather more honeydew than others? Such has been my experi- 
ence. 
(b) Do certain races gather less honeydew than others? I 
have been told so. 
A. (a) Possibly there is a difference in colonies as to their 
preference for different sources. One year I had one or more 
colonies that gathered honey of light color while the rest gath- 
ered buckwheat. It might be that they strongly preferred the 
lighter honey, or it might be that they just happened on the 
lighter honey in some particular place, 
(b) It is possible, 
