Field Notes on Honey from Long-tubed Flowers

Abstract

Restatement of a long dispute: Scientists say honey bee tongues can not reach nectar in long-tubed flowers such as red clover corollas or longer ones; but practical apiarists maintain honey bees get much yield from red clover besides pollen. Fair judges seem to have passed as from red clover, honey that was pink honey-dew, but normal color of true red clover honey not surely known. Scientists have failed to show how much bees follow insects that make holes in clover corolla tubes or gnaw tubes short, or droughts shortening tubes or in tubes of many wild flowers with longer corollas; new examples. Latest federal and state bulletins claiming red clover as a nectar source fail to offer proof how bees reach nectar, though Europeans claim honey bee tears its own holes. Appeal for more field notes and quantitative tests.