1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



293 



Mr. Kdward G Brown, Secretary of the West- 

 ern Honey Producers, with headquarters at Sioux 

 City, Iowa, writes that the Iowa bee-keepeis are 

 greatly indebted to Mr. N. E. France, General 

 Manager of the National Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion, and Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, for assistance in securing the pas- 

 sage of this bill. He also desires to thank the 

 editors the America/i Bee Journal and Gleanings 

 in securing the co-operation of the Iowa bee- 

 keepers. 



The Iowa law is a model of brevity and effect- 

 iveness. As it IS so short we take pleasure in giv- 

 ing the full text of it here. 



Section 1. The Governor is hereby authorized to appoint a 

 competent man as inspector of bees, who shall hold his office (or 

 a term of two years, or until his successor is appointed and quali- 

 fied; and said inspector shall have the power to appoint deputies. 



Sec. 2. It shall be the duly ot such inspector, when notified in 

 writing, by at least three bee-keepers of any locality, of the ex- 

 istence, or supposed existence, of the disease known as " foul 

 brood " among the apiaries of such locality, to examine at once 

 thoroughly such apiaries as are reported to be diseased, and all 

 other apiaries in the same locality, and thus ascertain whether 

 such disease exists. 



If the bees In any apiary are in such place or condition as to 

 prevent a thorough examination by the inspector, he may order 

 the same to be put into proper place or condition for such exam- 

 ination. If such order is not complied with, and the inspector 

 has reason to believe such bees are diseased, he may cause them 

 to be destroyed. If upon examination the inspector is satisfied 

 of such disease, he shall give the owner or person in charge of 

 such apiary full instructions as ta the manner of treating the 

 same. Within reasonable time after such examination the in- 

 spector shall, without other notice, make further examination of 

 su.h apiaries; and if the condition of any of them is such as, in 

 his judgment, renders it necessary, he may burn, or cause to be 

 burned, all the infected colonies of bees in any apiary, together 

 with all the combs and hives in order to prevent the further 

 spread of the disease. 



Sec. J. The inspector shall make a yearly report to the Gov- 

 ernor, stating the number of apiaries visited, the number of those 

 diseased and treated, and the number of colonies of bees de- 

 stroyed. Such report shall also show the expenses incurred by 

 the inspector while in the discharge of his duties under the pro- 

 visions of this act. 



Sec. 4. Any one who knowingly sells, barters, or gives away, 

 moves, or allows to be moved, a diseased colony or colonies of 

 bees, be they queen or workers, or infected appliances, or who 

 exposes any infected honey to the bees without the consent of 

 the inspector, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be 

 liable on conviction before any justice of the county to a fine of 

 not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars or to 

 imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding thirty days, or 

 both fine and imprisonment. 



Sec. 5. Any person whose bees have been destroyed or treated 

 for " fool brood," who sells or offers for sale any bees, hives, or 

 appurtenances, after such destruction or treatment, without being 

 authorized by the inspector to do so, or expose in his apiary or 

 elsewhere any infected honey or other infected thing, or conceal 

 the fact that said disease exists, shall be deemed guilty of a mis- 

 demeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine of 

 not less than twentv-five nor more than fifty dollars, or imprison- 

 ment in the county jail not exceeding thirty days. 



Sbc. 6. Any owner or possessor of bees who disobeys the di- 

 rections of the inspector, offers resistance, or obstructs said in- 

 spector in the performance of his duties, shall be deemed guilty 

 of a misdemeanor, andnpen conviction thereof before any justice 

 of the peace of the county shall be fined not exceeding the sum 

 of fifty dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceed- 

 ing thirty days. 



Sec. 7. Such inspector shall receive as compensation the sum 

 of three dollars per day for each day actually and necessarily em- 

 ployed in the discharge of the duties as herein provided, together 

 with his expenses actiully incurred while so employed, provided 

 that the amount paid on account of such expenses shall in no 

 event exceed the sum of one thousand dollars for any one year, 

 including salary and expenses of deputies. 



BEE-KEEPING IN HAWAII; HOW THE BEE-KEEP- 

 ERS THERE CONTROL THEIR BEE-RANGFS. 



We have before stated editorially that bee-keep- 

 ing in that group of islands in the Pacific is 

 a very important industry, and hoped to have 

 some interesting facts later to present to our read- 



ers. Dr E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, in charge of apiculture, Washington, D. 

 C, made a trip to the islands something over a 

 year ago. Since returning he has prepared a bul- 

 letin. No. 75, part 5, entitled "A Brief Survey of 

 Hawaiian Bee-keeping.* This is an exceedingly 

 interesting contribution, and the facts are so new 

 and valuable that we can do no better than make 

 some extended extracts After going on to state 

 that bee-keeping on the islands is one of the mi- 

 nor industries which is conducted with a profit, 

 and the further fact that this business can never 

 become a leading industry there, he goes on to 

 tell how the business is carried on. 



At the present time bee-keeping is largely in the hands of four 

 corporations, they owning and operating at least four-fifths of all 

 the bees on the island. These companies are all managed by 

 American citizens, but there are a number of smaller apiaries, 

 some of which are owned by Japanese. The last-named apiaries 

 are usually not so well kept nor are they so productive. The 

 total number of colonies at present is probably about 20,000, and 

 the annual output of honey, which is mostly shipped to the main- 

 land or to Europe, is probably about 600 tons. The keeping of 

 bees by corporations, as opposed to individual ownership, is 

 something which is rarely observed elsewhere. As they are 

 located a considerable distance from the market, and as the ex- 

 pense of supplies and shipping is high, it has seemed desirable to 

 the bee-keepers to organize companies so that they may make 

 large shipments. There is also en the Hawaiian Islands a ten- 

 dency, to a marked degree, to incorporate all industries, and 

 doubtless the prevalence of this method of conducting business 

 has induced the bee-keepers to adopt it also. With this system 

 it is possible for one skilled manager to oversee the manipula- 

 tion of several thousand colonies, the actual manipulation being 

 done in most cases by the Japanese helpers; in this way the cost 

 of maintenance of the apiaries is reduced very considerably. 

 Since the price obtained for Hawaiian honey is still rather low, it 

 is of course necessary to reduce expense in every way possible. 



" BEE RIGHTS." 



The buying of " bee rights," as it is practiced in Hawaii, is 

 something practically unheard of elsewhere, and would certainly 

 appear to a mainland bee-keeper as a new and strange procedure. 

 The nearest approach to it is the renting of locations forcutyards, 

 which can not usually insure no competition. This practice 

 would not be possible were it not for the fact that most of the 

 available agricultural land on the islands is held in large tracts, 

 mostly as sugar-cane plantations and ranches. Arrangements 

 are made with the manager of a plantation lor locations for apia- 

 ries, and the bee-keeper agrees to pay a certain amount for the 

 use of the land and for the honey removed from these apiaries. 

 Frequently this is in the form of an agreement to pay a certain 

 sum for each ton of honey removed from the plantation, but at 

 times it is a fixed sum for the year, the bee-keeper assuming what 

 small risk there is of not getting a crop. The plantation man- 

 agement in turn agrees to allow no other bee-keepers to keep 

 bees in its territory. There are frequently small holdings within 

 the boundaries of the plantation over which the plantation com- 

 pany has no control, and some other bee-keeper may lease these 

 with the idea of allowing his bees to range over the entire plan- 

 tation. If, for example, he puts 200 colonies on such a holding, 

 the immediate placing of say 500 colonies just across the line 

 has a discouraging effect on this poaching, and it can end in only 

 one way, since the bee-keeper who has a right there has the ad- 

 vantage. The same thing happens when an outside bee-keeper 

 gets too close to the boi'ndary line. 



Naturally, when land is divided into smaller holdings, as is 

 the case almost everywhere on the mainland, such an arrange- 

 ment is not possible and a bee-keeper must run the risk of com- 

 petition. There is no way of telling what amount of honey is 

 taken from any given area when the tracts are small. The moral 

 right of priority claim, which so many bee-keepers advocate, has 

 small place in the manipulations of territory in Hawaii, where 

 the bee-keeping companies pay for what they get and insist on 

 getting it. One of the large companies gains its exclusive tight 

 by reason of the fact that it owns and leases a tract of over 100,- 

 000 acres for ranch purposes. 



EXTENT OF THE INDUSTRY. 



At the present time there are on the islands probably about 

 20,000 colonies of bees, most of which are, as above stated, 

 owned by four companies. From the custom-house statistics it 

 is shown that the annual shipments of honey amount to about 

 1000 tons. The island of Kauai now supports about 3000 colo- 

 nies, and, after traveling over almost the entire cultivated por- 

 tion of the island, the author is of the opinion that the island is 

 just about half stocked. The island of Oahu seems to be well 



*This can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents 

 on the payment of 15 cents. Stamps will not be taken. 



