1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



597 



is probably small, to judge from the size of the 

 comb. 



The natives tell me of two other varieties, smaller 

 still than the one I have described, but said to be 

 true honey-bees. These deposit their honey in hol- 

 low trees, or in holes in walls, or among rocks. 

 There is but little of it, and it is said to be of very 

 interior quality. I have never seen them, but theie 

 seems no reason to doulit that such exist; tlie 

 smaller variety of the two, as described to me by a 

 native of Udayagiri Hill, who brings us a good deal 

 of honey, being about as large as housetlies. 

 . There is still another variety of bee which makes 

 most of the honey we buy. Tiiis is considerably 

 larger than your tame bee, the hinder part of the 

 body being longer and more pointed, while tlie 

 wings and head are of a dark smoky color. I should 

 judge there were about as many of these in a colony 

 as of the tame bees at home. They usually attach 

 their comb to the under surface of an overhanging 

 rock on the face of a cliff, inaccessible to any thing 

 but human Ingenuity; and the single comb whicli 

 they make is about a foot and a half broad where it 

 adheres to the rock, of about the same depth, and 

 three or four inches in thickness. Whether the 

 wax of which these combs are made is essentially 

 different from that of our domestic bees in America. 

 I do not know; but it seems to have the power of 

 resisting the intense heat of a blazing sun in a way 

 that T am quite certain the comb of our tame bees 

 would not. 



In gatliering tliis kind of honey the natives let 

 themselves down by a rope from above; and the 

 story is told here of one man wlio went alone to rob 

 some bees, as lie did not wish to share his spoils 

 with another; but the rope by which he climbed 

 down gave way, and he M^as killed by falling to the 

 bottom of the precipice. In the Slievaroy Hills the 

 natives use ladders of split bamboo instead of ropes. 

 These can be made as long as required by lashing 

 pieces together. It is then lowered over the clitl, 

 and a man climbs down to where the honey is. Fires 

 are usually built btlow the bees in order to stupefy 

 them by the smoke; but this in most cases would 

 have little effect, owing to the height of the bees 

 from the foot of tiie cliff. However, I have been- 

 told by those who bi'ing us honey that they care 

 little for the sting of the bees, having become so 

 inoculated with the poison that it produces little 

 effect. 



The temper of these large bees is quite as uncer- 

 tain as that of our tame bees at home. I once saw 

 a colony of them that had attached their comb to 

 the under side of a beam over a driveway in front 

 of the judge's court in Nellore, and were working 

 away apparently without disturbing, or being dis- 

 turbed l)y. the crowds of people that were constant- 

 ly coming and going. On the other hand, there are 

 three swarms of them on tlie face of the cliff near a 

 spring from which our drinking-water is brought 

 while we are on the hill, and a few days ago they 

 attacked and stung an old man and a boy, appar- 

 ently without any provocation. The old man comes 

 up every day with our mail and marketing, and tlie 

 boj', a relative of one of our servants, was going 

 down with him. They had stopped at the spring to 

 eat some food wlien tlie bees commenced stinging 

 the boy. Tiie old man wrapped his own upper cloth 

 around the boy and l)rought him back up to the 

 house: but in doing .so he had left his own body ex- 

 posed, and stings by dozens were picked out (jf his 

 body and :egs and the boy's head. Tlieiewas lu) 

 immediate swelling, thougli tiie jiain seemed to be 

 severe. I gave them some simple remedies, and tlie 

 old man went down the hill. Tlie boy remained, and 

 the next morning liis face was swollen beyond rec 

 ognition. The swelling did iiot subside for three 

 days, and it was loiigei' than tliat before the old 

 man was able to climb the hill again. From this it 

 would seem that the poison injected by the sting of 

 these bees does not act so quickly as that of our 

 tame bees, but is no less potent. 



You speak of them as a uriv variety of bees. They 

 may be new so far as knowledge of them in America 

 is concerned, but they are probably much older, in 

 point of fact, than our own domestic bees, and, so 

 far as I can learn, have never been domesticated. 

 The wild bees which abounded in Palestine in Bible 

 times probably did not differ greatly if at all from 

 those found in India to-day. 



The price of honey varies with the season. In 

 times of exce.ssive drouth it is scarcely to be had 

 at any price. The natives, of course, destroy every 

 colony of bees they rob; and in a country like this 

 part of India, with its scanty rainfall and frequent 



drouths, the wonder is, almost, that the bees do 

 not become exterminated. This is one of the abun- 

 dant years, and we are offered much more than we 

 have any use for; .still, it is not really cheap. For 

 seven pounds of strained honey the other day my 

 wife gave a rupee and a half, which, at the present 

 rate of exchange, would be about seven cents a 

 pound. This, considering comparative quality and 

 the relative value of money, is quite as dear as good 

 American honey at twenty-five cents a pound. 



W. R. Manley. 

 TJdayagiri, Madras Presidency, India, May 30. 



[We are not able to identify the race.'^ of bees 

 mentioned by Mr. Manley. Possibly Mr. Ben- 

 ton can enlighten us. VVc should be pleased, 

 also, to have him tell us what he knows about 

 the bees that put their honey "on a stick."] 



REPORT FROM GERMANY. 



BY THE EDITOK OP THE " ILI.U.STRIERTE 

 NENZEITUNG. 



The season of 1S93 in Germany was a remark- 

 able one. In some sections of the "land of 

 Dzierzon " the honey crop was a total failure; 

 in others the bees got their winter stores; and 

 in others they stored more honey than was 

 ever before reported in our bee-jonrnals. In 

 North Germany we had a very good crop from 

 linden (basswood), locust, and other honey- 

 plants: and in South Germany there has been a 

 flow of honey from fir-trees. Some colonies 

 gave 200 to 300 lbs. of rich extracted honey, be- 

 sides winter stores. About the source of this 

 honey, our doctors disagree. Doctor Dzierzon 

 asserts that this honey, not being gathered 

 from the nectaries of blossoms, was the product 

 of the excrement of the tree-lice; and some doc- 

 tors, and with them the most of the practical 

 bee-keepers, say it is a product of the sap of the 

 plants, which would secrete on the upper side 

 of the leaves after very hot days and chilly 

 nights. Other of the German bee-keepers 

 think both of these opinions are right, so that 

 we may as well have plant-lice honey as honey 

 from the sap of the plants. Now, every bee- 

 keeper knows that plant-louse honey is dan- 

 gerous as food for the bees to winter on, and 

 therefore many German bee-keepers were 

 anxious about this species of honey from the 

 sap of the plants. But though the winter was 

 severe, all the bees in Germany came out very 

 well. So it proved that the honey from the 

 fir-trees was not dangerous — at least, not so 

 this winter. This honey has a very dark color. 

 It is darker than the honey from buckwheat; 

 yes, it is nearly black and glutinous, and has a 

 smell and taste like tannin. 



That the bees in Germany, when; nearly all 

 bee-keepers prefer outdoor wintering, came out 

 very well, was, of course, besides other circum- 

 stances, the result of some fine days we had in 

 the middle of February, when our bees had a 

 successful cleansing flight. But from this time 

 till to the begiiuiing of June we had cold, 

 rough, stormy days, and now and then night- 

 frosts. On the morning of June 30 the leaves 

 of the potatoes were injured in this way, and 

 no rain wonh mentioning. It has so happened 

 that these days were always mixed up with 

 some very fine ones, on vvhich our bees not only 

 could fly out, but found from the end of March 

 more or less ni'W honey and pollen. This, I 

 think, was the reason that the bees in Germany 

 prospered; and so much the more, when the 

 bee-keeper had'planted some honey and pollen 

 yielding plants in the neighborhood of his 

 apiary. Please do not misunderstand me in 

 this case. I am fully aware that the planting 

 of some patches— yes, some acres— of honey- 



