4S6 



T ingenious but Bomewhat unpractical " bar-and-frame hive " 

 invented and patented by Major Jlimn, and described by him 

 in a pamphlet firrt published in ISU. The validity of Mr. 

 Langstroth'a patent in America has, in point of fact, been 

 unavailingly disputed on this very ground. If, however, we 

 are to go back to rudiments and first principles, we should be 

 inclined to ascribe the original invention to Huber, who, during 

 the last century, used rectangular frame, or, as he denominated 

 them, "leaf" hives, which only require the addition of an 

 outside casing to approximate very nearly to the German frame 

 hives of the present day. Upon the whole, therefore, we are 

 disposed to indorse the decision arrived at by the trans- Atlantic 

 law courts, and consider that we are indebted to the Baron von 

 Berlepsch in Germany, and the Rev. L. L. Langstroth in 

 America, for the invention of the practical and convenient 

 frame hives now in such general use and high repute amongst 

 us. We may add. moreover, that we do not find that the frame 

 hive, or skeleton hive within a hive or box, supersedes the ad- 

 vantages which straw holds over wood as a non-conductor of 

 heat, and that for this reason we much prefer frame hives made 

 in straw to wooden ones, even when these latter possess the 

 advantage (?) of the most carefully-devised means of ventilation.] 



JOUBNAIi OF HOKTICULTDRE AND COTTAGK GARDENKR. 



[ Jane 20, 1861 



BEES AND BEE-KEEPING IN EGYPT. 



(Concluded from paqi" 420.) 

 The Arab holds the erroneous opinion that at the time of 

 ST7arming there are several queens in one and the same hive ; 

 and that if the stock does not swarm, or he does not divide it, 

 the old mother is always killed by the young queens. 



6. "In the middle of summer (August), when the Nile rises 

 and overflows its hanks, the Egyptian bee-master cuts out the 

 honeycombs. Whilst this is being done the entrance is stopped, 

 and the disc at the back of the hive being removed, the bees 

 are driven towards the front by means of smoke. A knife 

 having been used to loosen them at the top, perhaps three- 

 fifths of the honey-laden circular-shaped combs are taken out. 

 Combs containing brood-cells are not meddled with ; and if at 

 any time the Arab by mistake takes out a comb containing 

 eggs, larvie, or sealed brood, he immediately returns it again. 

 The destruction of bees by sulphur is unknown." 



In Egypt they also follow the swarming and depriving* 

 system. To destroy brood is there held as a sin. What, 

 indeed, would Soliman call those German beekeepers who 

 teach that at the time of the blooming of the willow (the end 

 of March or beginning of April), one should cut out of the 

 stocks all empty and brood-combs up to the sealed honey at 

 the top ? Verilv all that they do in strange lands and distant 

 parts of the earth is not so much amiss. 



7. " Soliman is truly a great smoker, yet he never employs 

 tobacco in his operations, but smokes bees only with dried 

 cowdung." 



I have before stated that the Egyptian bee stings only when 

 irritated, and I now repeat the same in order to avoid mistakes ; 

 but on the other hand, it irritated it is extremely vicious. 



I at first operated on the imported colony without smote ; 

 and as I was neither stung nor otherwise molested by the bees, 

 I could then with truth assert that the Egyptian bee did not 

 sting. About four weeks afterwards I made use of cigar- 

 smoke when withdrawing an Egyptian brood-comb in order 

 to remove it. I forthwith received eleven stings in the face 

 and five in the hands. The other day I purposely operated 

 with tobacco-smoke, and, having on no bee-cap, was compelled 

 to run away. All recent observations go to prove that tobacco- 

 smoke excites the greatest wrath in the Egyptian bee. With 

 German and Italian bees the human breath produces the same 

 effect. If the ire of an Egvptian stock is once excited, it 

 remains for a long time extremely vicious, and when it has at 

 last calmed down, we need use but a few whiffs of tobacco- 

 smoke to see the rage of the little insect break out again in its 

 full fury. We can understand with what spirit the Egyptian 

 bee sets upon people, when we consider the extraordinary agility 

 and vivacity of the insect. In order to subdue its irritation I 

 use the smoke of decayed willow wood (touchwood), and this 

 converts its courage into embarrassment, despondency, and 

 dread. They will even then fly at the operator, circle round 

 him like mad, and pitch on his face, hands, ifcc, curving them- 

 selves at the same time as if they would sting, but mostly fly 



* Tliis deprivatinn is effected by cutting combs out of the hives. — A 

 Devonshire Bee-keeper, 



oft again without having done so. I have not yet tried upon 

 the Egyptians the effect of smoke from dried cowdung. 



8. " The Egyptian-cylinder hives are four feet long,+ and are 

 made of a compost of Nile mud and cowdung. The Arab makes 

 a mould of reeds, round which he plasters the well-kneaded 

 material to the thickness of about 3 inches. When the cylinder 

 which is thus formed becomes dry, the reedwork is withdrawn. 

 Straw hives are unknown in any part of Egypt. In Upper 

 Egypt, in addition to these cylinders, they also use as bee-hives 

 moveable pots and pans formed of the same material. Stray 

 swarms are frequently discovered on the ground, when, if the 

 finder has not the courage to hive them, and the swarm be on 

 his own land, he takes Nile mud mixed with cowdung, and 

 builds a little but in the form of an oven, closing up the hole 

 which he has left by means of a door formed of the same 

 material." 



Travellers tell us not nnfrequently of bee-hives which they 

 have seen in Egypt. So, for example, De Maillet in his D<- 

 acription de 1 Egypte speaks of "hives," "bee-hives," and 

 "honey-hives." Among the Egyptian "bee-hives" they have 

 not, up to the present time, contrived straw hives, but only 

 cylinders, pots, &c., formed of Nile mud. There is positively 

 no reason whatever for supposing that the ancient Egyptians 

 used straw hives, since straw is, on account of its retention of 

 heat, a most unlit material for bee-hives in this country. 



9. " The Egyptians place their bee-hives as near as possible 

 to the clover fields. In the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 cylinder-hives, which are piled up like drain-pipes, is erected a 

 dwelling for the bee-watchman." 



Bees collect the most honey from clover. The clover which 

 is so abundantly cuitivated in Egypt, Trifolium alexandrinum, 

 should also be cultivated by the Berlin Acclimatisation Society 

 in the experimental fields in Berlin, where, through sowing 

 the original seed, they had such a brilliant result in the year 

 1862. The plant is an annual, and the seed raised, even on 

 good soil, in this locality, is wanting in the vigour necessary to 

 produce the superior clover which we find in its native country. 

 To import seed annually would, with the high cost of trans- 

 port and the doubtfulness of the supply, be doubly disadvan- 

 tageous. 



10. " Travelling with bee-stocks is no longer seen in Egypt." 

 According to various accounts, the ancient Egyptians prac- 

 tised a profitable system of migratory bee-keeping. De Maillet 

 related (1740), that they then still made use of the Nile in 

 order to obtain a rich honey harvest. " In Egypt they have 

 preserved a custom, introduced by the ancients, of maintain- 

 ing bees in a very peculiar manner. Sainfoin is first sown 

 towards the end of October, when the Nile subsides. As Upper 

 Egypt is hotter than Lower Egypt, and the inundation sooner 

 disappears, the sainfoin there grows and flowers earlier. They, 

 therefore, send their bee-hives from Lower Egypt to the south, 

 in order that the bees may gather from the flowers. The bee- 

 hives are all numbered and piled in a pyramidal form on Nile 

 boats. The bees pasture for some days in the fields, and when 

 it is believed that the chief harvest is over, the boat moves 

 two or three miles northwards, and halts again so long as the 

 bees can profitably remain. At last, in the beginning of 

 February, the boatman returns to the sea and restores the 

 stocks to their owners." Niebuhr also describes migratory 

 bee-keeping in Nile boats. From verbal information imparted 

 to Dr. Gerstiicker, we learn that neither Ehrenberg nor Dr. 

 Hartmann observed during their travels the transportation of 

 bee-hives on the Nile. Hammerschmidt's careful inquiries in 

 the year 186.5 have established the fact, that at present migra- 

 tory bee-keeping is not pursued in Egypt. All modem ac- 

 counts, therefore, which represent migratory bee-keeping as 

 being still customary in that country, are, of course, unfounded. 



11. " The worst enemy which the bees have in Egypt is a 

 long slender wasp, or humble-bee, with a red body. In the 

 latter part of the summer this insect sets itself before the en- 

 trance of the hive and kills every bee that comes out. At this 

 season, therefore, a child is stationed in front of the hives 

 with a larse fan to drive away the wasps. In the year 1865 

 the Arab Soliman had in a short time no less than eighteen 

 out of a hundred stocks so completely plundered that they 

 died, and all through the carelessness of the child to whom 

 the watch was intrusted." 



What Egvptian insect may be meant by the red-bodied 

 wasp, or humble-bee, I am unable to learn. I hope, however, 

 that those naturalists who are among the rea ders of our bee 



f About 3 feet 10 inches English measure. 



