>At 07:52 PM 10/04/97 -0400, you wrote:
>> would the flower fidelity of the honeybee just send them elsewhere
>>looking for clover?
 
Best to cut the clover just as the trees start flowering.
 
>You may be right
>
>BUT ....
>
>I saw a Chinese (may have been Korean or Japanese) film once about this sort
>of topic.
>
>The bees were not interested in the flower that the grower wanted to
>pollinate.  The beekeeper solved the problem soaking several petals in a
>warm solution of strong sugar syrup.  When the syrup was cool, it was fed to
>bees in the hive.  The bees got a taste of the crop and pollinated it.
>
I have also not tried this but learned of this method in a beekeeping
course in France.
 
Ed Levi