1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



457 



they will survive longer on this quantity of 

 stores, than if this sealed honey were un- 

 sealed stores ; at least, that is my opinion 

 after having done considerable taking away 

 the honey and giving sugar stores instead. 

 Now, I do not mean to say that natural 

 stores will go further than sugar, but, on 

 the contrary, if the colony has stores of 

 sugar syrup sealed up in good shape for 

 winter, it would answer just as well or even 

 better than the natural stores. The point is, 

 that it costs a good deal to get any kind of 

 stores, well ripened and sealed, up in the 

 combs. In working some little time to get 

 a colony of vicious hybrids to accept a differ- 

 ent queen, they uncapped their honey ami 

 gorged themselves with it, and then put it 

 back in their combs so many times that 

 they nearly used up in a couple of weeks 

 what would otherwise have lasted them all 

 winter. 



IS IT TRUE v 



I inclose a clipping from the Nrw York Evening 

 Post, which I thought might be of interest to you. 



YouN(i G. Lee. 

 Charlotte Harbor, Fla., May 13, 1889. 



CURIOUS DISCOVERY OF OLD HONEY. 



A remarkable discovery has just been made at 

 the Cathays Yard of the Taff Vale Railway Com- 

 pany. A large elm-tree, srown in Gloucestershire, 

 was being cut up into timber, when, right in the 

 very heart, a cavity measuring 8 feet by V-A inches 

 in diameter was discovered almost completely filled 

 with a comb of the honey-bee, together with a 

 squirrel's skull. No means of access to the hollow 

 was discoverable, neither was decay anywhere ap- 

 parent, and around the cavity itself no less than 

 fifty "rings,'' each ring denoting a year's growth, 

 were counted, the outer bark, too, being without a 

 tlaw. The hollow was of uniform size throughout, 

 and presented the appearance of having been bored 

 with an auger, and, great though its dimensions 

 were, it was practically filled with the comb, prov- 

 ing that the bees must have been in possession for 

 several years. Empty combs of the queen-bee also 

 showed that they had swarmed. How the bees got 

 there can only be guessed, but it is surmised that a 

 squirrel once occupied a decayed hole in the tree, 

 cleared away the decay, occupied the cavity as its 

 home, and there died. Then the bees entered into 

 possession and filled the hole with comb, when by 

 some means the entrance, which must have been 

 small, became stopped, the large quantity of grub 

 and fly being taken as demonstrative that the nest 

 was not voluntarily deserted. Then for fifty years 

 the growth of the timber went on. The entrance 

 being absolutely obliterated and the hole being her- 

 metically sealed, the comb was preserved from de- 

 cay for half a century, to be found at last in the 

 way described. The find is of the greatest interest 

 to naturalists.— Pall Mall Gazettr. 



There is nothing particularly new in the 

 above. I believe that wood-choppers meet 

 with many such cases, although the trees 

 may not be as large and as old as the one 

 mentioned above. The fact that they found 

 brood in these old combs does not by any 

 means indicate that the bees were stopped 

 in. Where they starve out in the spring, 

 there is almost always more or less brood 

 left in the combs. 



CHUNK HONEY, AND HOW IT SELLS. 



I don't like sections. They are too much trouble, 

 and too uncertain about getting filled. I like 

 frames best for comb honey. 1 cut out what will 

 do to eat, then extract the rest, after which I set 

 the frames over a nucleus and let the bees clean 

 them up. 1 now fill in with foundation the place 



where 1 took out the honey. This is the way we 

 have been managing ours the last three years when 

 we had honey. We put in buckets and jars, and 

 then pour in extracted honey. It sells before cool 

 weather, and it goes off nicely this way. 1 think 

 earthen jars the best yet to store honey in. We 

 can weigh the jar. and then put the weight on a 

 piece of paper, paste it on the jar, and then weigh 

 honey and all together, and then wax a cloth and 

 put it over the jar, tie it on with a string, and it 

 will not leak or spill. 



I like Gleanings well, Our Homes especially, 

 Mr. and Mrs. Chaddock do look funny trying to get 

 into a bee-hive at the side. Why not go in at the 

 top? How are the carp getting aljnf;' I have not 

 heard from them for some time. A. K. DlOK. 



Hettick, la., Feb 8, 1889. 



The plan you give is old and well known ; 

 but there are people, and I presume there 

 are communities, that would pay more for 

 honey in a stone crock than for that stored 

 in any other way. In fact, it has been sug- 

 gested that honey tastes better when taken 

 from an earthen jar than when stored in 

 glass, tin, or any thing else. I should think 

 the jars would be cumbersome to lug 

 around. 



The carp are getting along nicely, except 

 that we are still troubled with brook min- 

 nows getting in among them. I suppose 

 that, if 1 had some competent person to take 

 charge of the carp-pond, just as we have Er- 

 nest and Mr Spafford to take charge of the 

 bees, then I could succeed in banishing the 

 minnows from our pond. The only harm 

 they do is to destroy the largest part of the 

 eggs that the carp lay, and rill the pond 

 with their own worthless selves. 



IS ALSIKE A CROSS OF WHITE DUTCH ? 



As there was considerable discussion in Glean- 

 ings some time back concerning alsike clover, as 

 to whether it was a cross between the red and 

 white, I have proved to my satisfaction that it is. 

 About five years ago I sowed some seed 1 got of A. 

 I. Root. The second year, it bloomed out as nice 

 alsike as I ever saw; the third year was dry, and it 

 did not do much. The next year there was not a 

 head of alsike to be seen— it was every bit white 

 Dutch, and 1 know there had never been a seed of 

 white clover on the ground. Year before last I 

 sent to W. M. Plant, St. Louis, and got a peck of 

 alsike and sowed it. Last year it was as fine alsike 

 as I ever saw. This spring it has all bloomed out 

 white Dutch not a stalk of alsike, and there never 

 was a bunch of white clover on the ground before 

 last spring. I sowed five acres more alsike, and it 

 has bloomed out as fine a set of white Dutch as 1 

 ever saw. 1 think that should be evidence enough ; 

 at least, I am satisfied with it. There is but one 

 chance left for it to prove to be genuine alsike, and 

 that is this: I pastured each piece, that I had sown 

 to alsike, all winter and till in the spring. What 

 have you got to say about it, friend Root V 



Chas. L. Gough. 

 Rock Spring, Mo., May 14, 1889. 



The able professors of the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College, if I am not mistaken, de- 

 clare that alsike is not a hybrid. If the seed 

 you sowed contained no white clover at all, 

 the phenomenon you mention is a mystery, 



