1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1325 



not upon his political influence. I believe Wis- 

 consin has the best and most efficient law relative 

 to this subject, and the bee-keepers of that State 

 should be proud of the law and proud of their 

 capable and splendid inspector. 

 College View, Neb. 



BEE-KEEPING IN JAPAN, 



A Description of the Bees, the Climate, 

 and of the Sources of Honey. 



BY J. HOBO. 



The oldest record on bee-keeping in our his- 

 tory brings us back to the reign of Emperor 

 Kokyokee (600 a. d. ), when Prince Yoha, of 

 Corea, came over to our country and let his four 

 hives of bees fly at Mt. Miwa, in the province of 

 Yamato. This is the first historical record we 

 find on bees; but it is not clear whether we had 

 bees before that. Bees in Corea are said to be a 

 little smaller than ours, and those of Manchuiia 

 to be a bit larger. Perhaps all kirds of bees in 

 the far East are from the same original race. 



From time immemorial people have practiced 

 bee-keeping in different provinces. The most 

 noted ones are Kii, Shinano, and Kyushu prov- 

 inces. So the hives kept and honey produced in 

 these regions were considerable. But the way 

 of keeping bees is not improved at all. They 

 use empty boxes or casks to put the swarm in, 

 with no design of conveniencing the bees. In 

 the autumn they open these, cut ofl the combs, 

 put them into bags, and squeeze out the honey 

 contained. The poor bets brushed olf are left 

 w ith no stores for winter. Often they leave some 

 part of the combs for the bees. It is the habit of 

 the Japanese bees not to store pollen for the win- 

 ter; and as their queens cease to lay late in au- 

 tumn the honey squeezed out does not contain 

 so much juice of pollen and brood; yet the color 

 is very dark, with a disagreeable flavor. Some 

 practice what they call a better way — cutting off 

 the combs and setting them out in the sun, which 

 will melt the wax and let the lioney run out. 

 Some cut off a part of the comb with honey only, 

 and press them in bars. These are considered 

 fine honeys, and sell high. 



We do not use honey as food, except farmers 

 living in mountains too far from any villages to 

 get sugar. Our people consume honey in medi- 

 cal use largely. Most of our people do not know 

 honey as food nor sweets on the every-day table. 



Though bee-keeping is in such a state, it is 

 quite interesting to know that the bee-keepers in 

 the province of Kii have practiced migratory bee- 

 keeping for ages, keeping extra queens to replace 

 the unprolific ones. Movable frames were known 

 to some of our people more than twenty years 

 ago; but the nature of our bees didn't fit the im- 

 proved hives, and poor results followed every- 

 where, and the use of them stopped generally. 

 There are nearly 100,000 hives in our country, 

 with an average of from 10 to 15 pounds of 

 honey. 



Mr. K. Aoyagi and others saw the defects of the 

 native bees, and the necessity of importing Euro- 

 pean bees to our country to make bee-keeping 

 succeed. But their idea did not work well until 

 Mr. Aoyagi succeeded in importing Cyprian 



bees. About 40 of them were scattered from his 

 hand in different parrs of the empire, besides 35 

 colonies which he is wintering now. Through 

 his efforts people began to see some profit in the 

 so-called improved bee-keeping. Some of our 

 rich men and nobles began to be interested in it. 

 Among them are Count Matsukata's son. Baron 

 Iwasaki, Dr. Nagoyo, and others. In the near 

 future our people will see the value of honey as 

 food and take interest in bee-keeping. The Bee- 

 keepers' Union, Tokyo, under the supervision of 

 Mr. Aoyagi, has at present about 250 mem- 

 bers. The Union is making steady progress, 

 making the highways in bee-keeping by publish- 

 ing a monthly journul, explaining improved bee- 

 keeping to the members. 



Let me explain some hii.g about Japanese bees. 

 They are gentle, but reckless and timid, getting 

 up a stir whenever we h..ndle them. This is one 

 of the principal reasons why they are not fit for 

 the removal of frames; because as the hives are 

 easily opened, every time they get into a tumult 

 a poor result ensues. They love their queens too 

 much, and like to be gathering too much. This 

 is the reason the use of supers is decidedly im- 

 pr.icticable to them. They are very sensitive, 

 too, so they work well as far as the condition of 

 hives is all right; but if they find something in 

 the hive they do not liket hey cease to work, and 

 run away. They are a hardy race for winter, 

 but fear the heat in summer; they are weak in 

 defending themselves against moth; so if we neg- 

 lect this in summer, or in case of too much moth 

 trouble, they leave the hives. They never accept 

 foreign queens, and this is the reason of our dif- 

 ficulty in improving bees. The cells are a bit 

 smaller and the walls weaker than those of Euro- 

 pean bees, so the foundations we get from your 

 country are not liked by them, and sometimes 

 they build drone combs on your worker founda- 

 tion. The queens are quite prolific, but good 

 swarmers; and when they swarm they gather on 

 trunks of trees 15 to 20 feet high, giving us trou- 

 ble in catching them. 



These are the principal defects of our bees, and 

 it is the cause of the unprogressive state of bee- 

 keeping here. We find it impossible to get a 

 good result in bringing forth a great income from 

 our native bees — simply too much trouble and 

 too little gain. If I could give fine points on 

 our bees it is their gentleness, as we never use a 

 smoker, veil, or gloves, and their diligence and 

 quickness of flight. 



THE CLIMATE. 



As you know, our country stretches along 

 from southwest to northeast, with the Pacific on 

 the southern side and the Japan sea on the north- 

 ern. Formosa, the southernmost island, is very 

 hot, while Hokkaido and Sagalien are cold, with 

 deep snow and ice during their long winter. But 

 the mainland, with ihe two great islands of Ky- 

 ushu and Shikoku of our island empire, is in the 

 temperate zone, is moderate in winter, which is 

 comparatively short except in those parts facing 

 the Japan Sea, where snow comes deep in winter. 

 Hakone, where Mr. Aoyagi has his apiary, is the 

 summer and winter resort, both for foreigners 

 and natives. Surrounding mountains and hot 

 springs everywhere in the ranges make the place 

 more charming. The winter we have here is 

 very moderate — with only a little snow occasion- 



