HONEYCOMB CONCEALED FOR HALF A CENTURY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9380, 1 June 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

HONEYCOMB CONCEALED FOR HALF A CENTURY

A kumarkai'.mc discovery has just been made at the Cathays Yard of the Taff Vale Railway Company. A large elm tree, grown in Gloucestershire, was being cub up into timber when, right in the very heart, a cavity measuring Bft by 7i in in diameter was discovered almost completely filled with the comb of the honey bee, together with a squirrel's skull. No means of access to the hollow was discoverable, neither was decay anywhere apparent, and around the cavity itself no less than fifty "rings," each ring denoting a year's growth, were counted, the outer bark being, too, without a flaw. 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, proving 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 whole 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 hermetically sealed, the comb was preserved from decay for half a century, to be found at last in the way described. The find is of the greatest interest to naturalists.