1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTQRE. 



173 



width, and covei'ed with whitish - brown hairs; tip 

 black. They are nimble on foot and on the wing, 

 and active gatherers. 



The queens. —The queens are large in proportion 

 to their workers, and are quite prolific; color, leath- 

 er or dark coppery. The drones.— These are only 

 slightly larger than the workers; color, jet-like 

 blue-black, with no yellow, their strong wings show- 

 ing changing hues like those of wasps. 



Manipulations witii colonies of these bees are easy 

 to perform if smoke be used; and, though they are 

 more excitable than our common hive bees, this pe- 

 culiarity does not lead them to sting moie, but 

 seems rather to proceed from fear. The sting is also 

 less severe. 



Under the rude methods thus far employed in the 

 management of this bee no great yields of honey 

 are obtained, some 10 or 12 pounds having been the 

 most reported from a single hive. It is quite prob- 

 able tliat, if imported into this country, it would do 

 more. These bees would no doubt visit many small 

 flowers not frequented by the hive bees we now 

 have, and whose nectar is therefore wasted; but 

 very likely they might not withstand the severe 

 winters of the North unless furnished with such ex- 

 tra protection as would be atforded by quite warm 

 cellars or special repositories. 



[On thft next page is something exceedingly 

 interesting regarding the smallest honey-bees 

 in the world. Just take a look at the size of 

 the cells as shown in the figure, natural size, 

 and then compare them In your mind's eye 

 with comb in your own apiary. Well, here is 

 what he has to say:— Ed.] 



THE TINY EAST INDIAN HONEY-BEE. 



(Apis florea. Fab.) 

 This bee, also a native of East India, is the smallest 

 known species of the genus. It builds in the open 

 air, attacliing a single comb to a twig of a shrub or 

 small tree This comb is only about the size of a 

 man's hand, and is exceedingly delicate, there being 

 on each side 100 worker-cells 

 to the square inch of surface 

 (Figs. 3 and 3). The workers, 

 more slender than house- 

 flies, though longer bodied, 

 are blue-black in color, with 

 the anterior third of the ab- 

 domen bright orange. Col- 

 onies of these bees accumu- 

 late so little surplus honey 

 as to give no hope that their 

 cultivation would be profit- 

 able. 





[A few years ago a great 

 deal u;>ed to be said regard- 

 ing the "giant," or East 

 Indian, honey - bees, or 

 Apis dorsnta, and the pos- 

 sibilities of having them 

 imported and domes-ticat- 

 ed in this country. Much 

 Fig. 2. -Worker cells of of .tfulh and nonsense has 

 tinj'Eastindianhonev-bee evidently been circulated 

 l.^Pi?A°'''"'^'' "^'"■•'i'*'*^*^ in regard to them. Mr. 



Original. 



to the other species of Apis mentioned here, does 

 not construct larger cells in which to rear drones, 

 these and the workers being produced in cells of the 

 same size. Of these bees— long a sort of myth to 

 the bee-keepers of America and Europe— strange 

 stories have been told. It has been stated that they 

 build their combs horizontally, after the manner of 

 paper-making wasps; that they are so given to wan- 

 dering as to make it impossible to keep them in 

 hives, and that their ferocity renders them ob- 

 jects greatly to be dreaded. The first real informa- 

 tion regarding these points was given by the 

 author. He visited India in 1880-81 for the purpose 

 of obtaining colonies of Apis dorsata. These were 

 procured In the jungles, cutting the combs from 

 their original attachments, and it was thus ascer- 

 tained that (as might have been expected in the 

 case of any species of Apis), their combs are always- 

 built perpendicularly; also that the colonies placed 

 in frame hives and permitted to fly freely did not de- 

 sert these habitations, and that, far from being 

 ferocious, these colonies were easily handled by 

 proper precautions, without even the use of smoke. 

 It was also proved by the quantity of honey and 

 wax present that they are good gatherers. The 

 execution at that time of the plan of bringing these 

 bees to the United States was prevented only by 

 severe illness contracted in India. 



These large bees would doubtless be able to get 

 honey from flowers whose nectaries are located out 

 of reach of ordinary bees, notably those of the red 

 clover, now visited chiefly bv bumble-bees, and which 



regard to 

 Benton, having been right 

 In their native land, gives us something liere 

 that can be relied on.— Ed. J 



THE GIANT EAST INDIAN HONEY-BEE. 



(Apis dorsata. Fab. i 

 This large bee, which might not be inappropriately 

 styled the Giant East Indian bee. has its home also 

 in the far East— both on the continent of Asia and 

 the adjacent islands. There are probably several 

 varieties, more or less marked, of this species, and 

 very likely Apis zonata, Guer., of the Philippine 

 Islands, reported to be even larger than Apis 

 dorsata, will prove on further investigation to 

 be only a variety of the latter. All the varieties 

 of these bees build huge combs of %'ery pure 

 wax— often 5 to 6 feet in length and 3 to 4 feet in 

 width, which they attach to overhanging ledges of 

 rocks or to large limbs of lofty trees In the prim- 

 itive forests or jungles. When attached to limbs of 

 trees they are built singly, and present much the i 



Fig. 3.— Comb of tiny £ast Indi.an honey-bee i Apis tlorea) ; 

 one-third natural size. (Original). 



it is thought the East Indian bees might pollinate 

 and cause to produce seed more abundantly. Even 

 if no further utilizable, they might prove an impor- 

 tant factor in the production in the Southern 

 States of large quantities of excellent beeswax, now 

 such an expensive article. 



[There are many other things regarding the 

 different races of bees that are instructive, but 

 we pass them by and turn to some of those en- 

 gravings that are both interesting and instruct- 

 ive. The first one of this series is Fig. 62 in the 

 book. It is, perhaps, the best illustration of a 

 comb of sealed and unsealed brood that has 

 ever appeared. The experienced bee-keeper 

 will notice the large number of queen-cells 

 built here and there, especially along the bot- 

 tom edge. The authorwrites regarding it:— Ed.] 



REARING AND INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



„„^„ „ ,, « , - „ - -■ When bees .swarm they generally leave a number 



same appearance as those of the tiny East Indian* of sealed queen-cells in the parent colony. With 

 nee, shown in the accompanying figure (Fig. :j).* blacks and Italians there are usually 6 to 10; rarely 

 -ine Uiant bee, however, quite in contradistinction Rmore than a dozen Carniolans generally construct 





