1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



819 



A VALUABLE LETTER FROM CUBA. 



CUHA VS. CALIFOItNIA. 



Friend Root: — As so many readers of Glean- 

 ings have written me about Cuba as a bee- 

 counti'y, I can do no better than answer 

 through its columns, so that all can havi' a 

 chance at the same dish. It would be quite 

 Impossible for me to mention all the advan- 

 tages and disadvantages in one paper. One 

 writes, "' How does it compare witli California ?" 

 In some respects there is a similarity — that is, in 

 the amount of honey, for instance, that is often 

 secured from a given number of colonies; but 

 then, there is a want of comparison, too, for 

 California of to-day is not what it used to be 

 for honey-producing, as tlie fruit and vine in- 

 dustries" have made such rapid strides in the 

 last ten years that the bee-ranges in many of 

 the honey-producing counties have been turned 

 to vineyards and orchards, while here there 

 is nothing of the kind. The hand of push, of 

 progress, of go-ahead, that is bound to succeed, 

 the hand that has charactcM'izcd and stamped 

 the American people as the niost energetic in 

 the world, is crippled here — brolien, as it were. 

 Not a muscle moves in the direction of '"get 

 there on time." But the natural resources re- 

 main nJinost untouched by the hand of man, 

 and they are something wonderful. As an evi- 

 dence, I will say that, while the last year has 

 been the poorest for honey I have ever seen 

 here (on account of so little rain), yet our 550 

 colonies have passed through the dry season 

 (or dearth of honey) with vei-y little help. We 

 have fed only ten pounds to the colony: and 

 had it not been for the fact that we had 3(X)new 

 colonies to make. I do not think we should have 

 had to feed half that amount. 



Bee - keeping here inquires attention. To 

 care for .5.50 colonies in California is only pas- 

 time compared with here, and the whole Unit- 

 ed States is tlie same. There is some season of 

 rest for the bee-keejjers. but here there is not. 

 Fi'om November until March is our surplus 

 season. Well, there is no rest about that. Then 

 comes requeening. and the making of new col- 

 onies if you have any to make The hot 

 weather is then upon you: and if there are any 

 queenless colonies that are at all weak, the 

 moths will probably eat up the combs; and I 

 want to tell you that it takes a pretty strong 

 force to stand off the moth in this climate, 

 where it never freezes, but " eternal vigilance " 

 will keep them out. 



Any one. to keep bees here successfully, must 

 a,ttend strictly to business. There is no time to 

 go visiting, to hang around the corner grocery, 

 or to sleep in the day time, but work and watch 

 365 days in the year, if there is no church to go 

 to on Sunday, and tliere is not here. Hut for 

 all the care necessary to success here, is it any 

 worse than the life of the merchant? If he 

 succeeds he must tend to business. How would 

 it be with you. friend Pioot. if you or some com- 



Setent person \\cre not on duty all the time? 

 low long would your business be self-support- 

 ing? I guess not very long. The same with 

 bee-keeping here. It will pay if att(>nded to. 

 You don't see me running up the white flag. 

 I tell you. that, if I do not succeed, it is my own 

 fault. The conditions necessary to success arc 

 here; and if I do not avail myself of those con- 

 ditions I have no one to blame. Of course, 

 thei'e are some requisites necessary to success, 

 such as the right strain of bees, hives, fixtures, 

 etc., suited to the wants here for a large busi- 

 ness: but the bees, the right strain, are very 

 important. We have the l)est results from the 

 hybrids, one and two bands. 



One correspondent asks, " What is the cost of 

 starting an apiary of .550 colonies there ?'" That 



is a hard (pK'stion to answer. This establish- 

 ment cost $10.()(H). How much chi'a])er one 

 could start such an apiary would depend upon 

 the man's ideas of what is necessary. There 

 have been some apiaries started here that I 

 presume did not cost flOOO; but I think they 

 have never amounted to much, or, at least, I 

 have never h(>ard that they did. If I start 

 more apiaries it will not be with a view to see 

 how cheap it can be done, but how complete 

 an establishment for the care of CM) colonies 

 can be made to successfully care for all the de- 

 tails, with as little help(man power)as possible. 



There was one young man wrote me for my 

 opinion of the two sections, California and Cuba, 

 for bee - keei)ing, and gave his address as 

 Orange Co.. Florida, no postoffice. I could not 

 answer with such an address as that. The 

 letter would only go to the dead-letter of'lice. 



You will I'eiueniber I told you last si)iing that 

 I had a 5-to-l gear for my Stanley extractor. 

 Well, I have it now, and it works like a charm, 

 when, before, the operator had to make his 

 hand go around so fast, in order to properly 

 dry tlie comlis, that it was very tiresome 

 indeed; and even then it could not be done to 

 suit me. Now, it is no trouble with the 12-inch 

 crank. You move the hand around slowly and 

 deliberately, and the baskets are traveling as 

 though they were afraid they would miss the 

 train. The" throwing-out of the honey now is a 

 pleasure, while before it was a task that but 

 few had the strength to perform. Yes, it starts 

 a little harder: but when in motion there is 

 no difference; but the difference in starting is 

 more than made up by the slow motion at 

 which the crank passes around. I shall do 

 nothing wrong if I say to every one thinking of 

 coming to Cuba to keep bees, that, if they wish 

 to come, there is nothing in the way; that 

 there is plenty of territory that is not occupied, 

 and, in fact, the best ]iart of the island, for bee- 

 keeping, is still o|ien. to be occupied by whoev- 

 er wishes. With attention, more money can be 

 made from bees here than in the United States; 

 but let no one forget that there is no season of 

 rest, from one year's end to the other, if he 

 would do justice to the business, and make it 

 pay. Many object to sticking so close to bees. 

 Tliat is all right: such i)eoi)le are not obliged 

 to stick to bees. As for myself. I like my Itusi- 

 ness, and I like to attend to it, and I have yet 

 to see the business that thrives when it is neg- 

 lected. The business is so unlike what it is in 

 the United States that people fail to under- 

 stand the difference without experience (and 

 some not then). Here, in order to make the bus- 

 iness pay, we are obliged to keep large apiaries; 

 and, with large apiaries, the per cent of loss 

 from coloni(>s getting queenless is great: and if 

 left (|ueenless only a very short time, the combs 

 are destroyed by nuith. and many other little 

 things tluit contribute to loss, where there are 

 five or six hundred colonies together, that 

 would not happen with a few colonies. All de- 

 tails need the closest attention. But with all 

 the objections that come up against the large 

 apiary I will take it every timi'. and give the 

 one niy best attention, rather than have live or 

 six little bunches locateil in as many diffi-i'ent 

 places, as long as there is plenty of forage in 

 one localitv for the wliole. This is the :lM of 

 October; and with 550 colonies here in one api- 

 ary, the l)est are storing honey right along, and 

 we are taking it away— a thing I nevei' did in 

 October before in Cuba, and you will remember 

 that this is not one of the months we expect 

 our bees to stor(> surplus. This has been a very 

 poor year. Th(> Cuban bee-keepers in this lo- 

 cality' have lost most of their bees. Very little 

 rain indeed. A. W. OsuuKN. 



Punta Brava de Guatao, Cuba, Oct., 18ii0. 



