Left honey out of hive

[mtbe]

During inspection this weekend, I broke some of the honeycomb that hadn't been covered with wax yet. 

I didn't want to take it since the bees hadn't covered it yet (possibly too high moisture), so I put the honeycomb and honey in a dish outside the hive, thinking they would take it back in their hive.  I'm not concerned with robbing.

Thing is, the bees haven't touched it.  I would have thought they'd be all over it.

Any ideas why they wouldn't go for it?

[sc-bee]

Sometimes it happens that way. They must be on a flow they prefer. Sometimes moving a little ways away from the hive makes a difference.

[AllenF]

Crazy.   You must have a real good honey flow going on for bees not to touch it.   Give it some time.  I bet they will find it soon.  

[vmmartin]

I agree.  I have read and also witnessed (in my short experience) that the bees would rather go gather nectar than eat honey.  I put a little honey out to see if they would get after it.  It set there for several days and then one day I noticed it gone.  Squirted a little more out and in 30 minutes there was a dogpile, or maybe I should say beepile.  That is when I pulled my supers off.  I felt like it was a good indication that the flow was substantially over.

[sterling]

I harvested a little honey in May and put the cappings out for the bees to clean. They wouldn't touch em. Yesterday I harvested alittle and couldn't keep the bees out of my truck where I put the containers with the frames in them. I drove the truck around to get them off but they followed me everywhere. Like someone already said more stuff blooming then.

[bulldog]

i have a similar situation, i left some on a rock behind the hive. there have been a few bees on it, but no full blown frenzy like i'd expect. it's almost as if the thought never occurred to them to look behind their hive. :?