306 



September, 1915. 



American l^ee Journal 



States, is ranked among noxious weeds 

 with Canada thistle, cocklebur, etc. It 

 is a creeper and hard to eradicate. 



In our locality of central Illinois, 

 sweet clover has been found to exter- 

 minate the ragweed {.Imbrosia arte- 

 misticfolia), the plant which has been 

 charged with causing hay-fever. 



Although sweet clover will subdue 

 these weeds by smothering them under 

 its rank growth, it is not, itself, hard to 

 eradicate, from fields or pastures 

 where it grows. — Editor] 



Beekeeping in China 



BY FRF.RE ROMAIN. 



THE readers of the American Bee 

 Journal will be pleased to know 

 that this esteemed magazine is 

 read as far as China; they will also 

 perhaps appreciate the good will of 

 that far subscriber who brings a note 

 of variety in talking of the Chinese 

 bees, which share in the oddity of their 

 masters, the citizens of the newest re- 

 public. But there are so many reviews 

 and bee papers in which a number of 

 talented men are writing, that there 

 seems to be very little chance to give 

 anything worth reading. However, let 

 me try it. 



In China, we find the same bees as in 

 Europe, the pure races excepted. They 

 are nearly half yellow, but a little 

 smaller than those of Europe, so much 

 so that they rear "drones "in worker 

 cells of European foundation. They 

 are very slow to enter the sections; 

 like their masters, they seem to dis- 

 trust innovations. 



In southeast China (Foo Kein) there 

 exists another kind of bee, black, hairy, 

 and much bigger than common bees. 

 The workers are as big as black Euro- 

 pean drones. I nearly succeeded in 

 getting a colony of those dragon bees. 

 Unfortunately, the Chinaman killed 

 them by smoking the box over the 

 chimney of his hut. It was a great pity, 

 for I believe those dragon bees are 

 able to gather from the kidney beans 

 {Fez'fs, r/iaselus). very abundant here 

 iti springtime. Common bees do not 

 visit them, but the bumblebees and 

 pseudo bees are foraging upon them 

 the whole day long. 



The Chinese bees are very mild and 

 very easy to manipulate ; a big hive 

 may be visited, Irame by frame, with- 

 out smoke and without a sting. One 

 of the most interesting qualities is that 

 they completely ignore " propolis ;" not 

 a bit is found in their hives (while I 

 know Italians gather a big lot). This 

 has perhaps the great inconvenience to 

 attract the " moth," which is in fact a 

 terrible enemy of bees, in China. But 

 the manipulation of frames is thus very 

 much simplified; our spacers being 

 staple screws fixed in the top-bar, a 

 single push or pull can move five or 

 six frames at a time. 



Naturally the Chinese peasants do 

 not know th.' modern frame hive. 

 They make hives of whatever vessels 

 come to their hands, box, bamboo bas- 

 ket, old barrel, earthen pot, old petro- 

 leum box, bucket, pail, but their pre- 

 ferred system is " drawers," or stories 

 without bottom, added underneath and 

 gathered from the top. By this ingen- 

 ious system they sometimes obtain a 

 verv strong population, but what 

 amount of drones! Those boxes are 

 usually olaced in front of their houses. 



high up under the projecting roof; 

 often, also, they are placed inside the 

 rooms, with a bamboo tunnel through 

 the wall, or the entrance is made by 

 simply removing a brick. 



This last mode of location has the 

 immense advantage of preserving bees 

 of cold during winter, which is rather 

 severe in the north of China, where a 

 temperature of — 25 degrees C ( — 13 de- 

 grees F.) is often registered during 

 the months of December, January and 

 February. Another no less real advan- 

 tage of this indoor location is to save 

 the boxes from thieves. Hives in the 

 open field, as in Europe, would have 9 

 chances out of 10 not to see the end of 

 their first season ; the Chinese being 

 robbers or marauders by instinct or 

 by necessity. 



Bees are rather thinly scattered 

 throughout China, a few here and 

 there, except in certain districts in the 

 West, where they are pretty numerous. 

 In the wild state, bees are found in 

 trees, old walls, in tombs, or rather in 

 the space between the cofifin and the 

 masonry surrounding it. Vou must 

 be informed that in China, the coffin 

 made of thick planks (sometimes 5 

 inches), is simply laid on the ground 

 and a rough brick wall constructed 

 around it, leaving empty spaces, which 

 those errant bees are glad to occupy. 

 As far as I know, there are very few 

 real " apiaries " in China. The best 

 one certainly belongs to the Russian 

 monastery, inside Pekin, N. E., which I 

 visited in 1908. At that time it was 

 composed of 85 large frame hives of 

 different models, mostly resembling 

 Layens (for cold climate), with Cau- 

 casian bees at the origin, imported by 

 Russian monks, wintering perfectly 

 well outside, protected by a thick cov- 



THIMBLKHERRY BUSHES ARR A PRETTY SIGHT. 



AND THK; BLOSSOMS FURNISH POLLEN AND 



NEC'l'AR KOR THE BEES 



WILD HAWTHORNE GROWS IN THE CANONS Ol' 



COLORADO. AND IS ATTRACTIVE TO 



THE BEES 



