356 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 7 1900 



ones have been sold, and hauled hither and thither, until 

 the question is, Wliere can I locate and be safe and secure ? 

 I myself took in 90 days from 100 colonies 2,400 pounds of 

 fine honey — but where is that 100 colonies now, and still 

 another 150 that I had in Cuba ? All dead from foul brood. 

 I shall try it once more, as 'the leading bee-keepers of the 

 island now have a move on foot to establish a foul-brood 

 law with an inspector to inspect and condemn all infected 

 colonies" — as they do in Wisconsin, Colorado, California, 

 New York, and other States. 



Grant Co., Wis., Nov., 1899. 



Honey-Production in Old Palestine. 



BY SKLAH MBRRII,!, (CONSUI,). 



IN ancient times, Palestine was famous for its honey, and 

 it has always been produced here, but until recently the 

 methods employed have been crude. The credit for de- 

 veloping- this industry by the introduction of improved 

 modern appliances is due to a family named Baldensperger, 

 which came from Switzerland in 1849, and settled at Artas, 

 a small village about seven miles south of Jerusalem, and 

 near the famous pools of Solomon. The father had always 

 been interested in bee-keeping, and began to keep some 

 bees in native hives — that is, long terra-cotta jars. What 

 he actually accomplisht in this line was of little account, 

 except to awaken in his five sons an interest in this busi- 

 ness, which, thanks to their enthusiasm and perseverance, 

 has become a success. 



The Baldensperger boys needed instruction, but books 

 were dear, and communication with Europe infrequent, and 

 it was not till the year 1880 that a real start was effected. 

 In 1883 they adopted the plan of transporting their bees from 

 one locality to another. From the region of Ramleh they 

 carried them to Yafa, a distance of 12 miles, to give them 

 the benefit of the orange-blossoms there. Women carried 

 the hives on their heads all the way, each woman carrying 

 one hive. They had a rich harvest of orange-blossom 

 honey during the month of April, and in other places two 

 crops from cactus and acacia blossoms, respectively. They 

 also started another Apiary, and secured from other locali- 

 ties crops of honey from lemon blossoms and from wild 

 thyme. The next year, also, they had good crops of honey, 

 the 50 hives at Yafa alone yielding 6,000 pounds in less than 

 one month. 



It was not long before this industry began to attract 

 the attention of the government, and at first a tax of a lit- 

 tle less than 10 cents a hive was imposed, but this was very 

 soon increast by an ingenious device whereby the officials 

 not only counted the actual hives, but every door, window 

 and hole in which they could see any bees moving was 

 reckoned as a " hive," with the result that ISO hives were 

 counted as 2,000. The matter had to be carried to court, 

 and was not settled till after two years of litigation, when 

 the Baldenspergers were found in debt to the government 

 to the amount of about $500. This decision affected one 

 large apiary only. 



It was in 1889 that this judgment was rendered, and, as 

 the Baldenspergers refused to pay, this apiary was sold at 

 auction in Jerusalem for about $1.25 per hive. The difficult 

 part of the work was to deliver the goods to the purchaser, 

 which the officials were bound to do. The purchaser, the 

 officials, and a large number of camels and camel drivers 

 went to the place where the apiary stood, expecting to take 

 it away, but as the bottom-boards of the hives happened to 

 be unhookt, the bees, when the hives were toucht, swarmed 

 out, and everybody had to retreat. 



A compromise was effected, one-half the amount de- 

 manded being paid, and the bees remained in the hands of 

 their original owners. 



The bee-keepers had to contend with enemies, which at 

 times nearly ruined their industry. Large yellow hornets 

 came in such numbers that they prevented the bees from 

 working, and destroyed multitudes of them. Sparrows, 

 swallows, and bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) also did a great 

 deal of mischief. Badgers, during one winter, destroyed 15 

 colonies. Rats are very troublesome ; they do not eat the 

 honey, but destroy the bees. Two kinds of lizards do much 

 harm. There is also a destructive moth, called "death-head 

 moth," which apjiears in autumn and enters the hives to 

 eat honey, but does not harm the bees. One of these moths 

 will take a teaspoonful of honey at a time. A strong col- 

 ony of bees will sting the intruders to death. The greatest 

 enemy is man. Wherever an apiary is set down, the sheiks 

 of the nearest villages have to receive a certain amount of 



honey, otherwise the bees will be stolen. When a hive is 

 stolen, fire, and sometimes water, is used to destroy the 

 bees. About one-tenth of all the honey produced must be 

 given away to prevent people from taking the hives. 



Furthermore, when the bees are being carried from one 

 place to another on camels, the Bedouins, or wild Arabs, 

 occasionally steal the camels. If to this list is added the 

 taxation, it will be seen that the industry of keeping bees 

 in Palestine is beset with many and serious obstacles, and 

 requires patience, tact and perseverance. 



When it seemed probable that this industry, so far as 

 the Baldenspergers were concerned, would be ruined by ex- 

 cessive taxation, the}' sold a large number of colonies, some 

 to natives who had been their servants, and had learned 

 the business from them, and some to a small colony of Jews 

 in Wady Hanein (on the plain of Sharon, south of Ramleh), 

 so that there are now about 700 colonies of bees at work be- 

 sides those belonging to the Baldenspergers. 



A good market is found for all the honej' produced. It 

 is sent to Germany, Switzerland, England, and a very little 

 to France. Last year (1899) the market was unusually 

 good, because the yellow hornet had been so destructive to 

 the native bees. 



The export duty is one percent. 



The average yield per colony is about 100 pounds of 

 honey. The working months are April, May, June and 

 July. After October nothing is taken from the bees. They 

 are then allowed all the honey thej- have — 25 to 30 pounds 

 per colony — to live upon. In January the keepers begin to 

 feed them some stimulating food. 



Natives all over the country produce honey after their 

 crude methods, as they always have done ; but they neither 

 produce nor sell much, and since they can not remove the 

 honey without destroying the bees, their business is not 

 profitable. The "extractors" which the Baldenspergers 

 use contribute largely to their success. — The National Rural. 



Jerusalem, Jan. 25, 1900. 



Bee-Keeping- in Clark County, Wis. 



^'rittenfor the Wisconsin Conventions held at Madison^ Fvb. 7 and S, 19(KI, 

 BY HERBERT CLUTE. 



FOR the benefit of bee-keepers in Clark County I will try 

 to give all and each a little insight into bee-keeping 

 here. 



First, we have the pasture so that our bees as well as 

 the apiarists have great advantages over those of the locali- 

 ties in other parts of Wisconsin, as well as in most of the 

 other States. 



Our bee-pasture is located on a very fertile belt of land 

 that is very heavily timbered with basswood, two kinds of 

 maple, also any amount of thorn-apple trees, wild plums, 

 cherry, etc., and gooseberries and raspberries in large 

 quantities. Besides this we have the wild myrtle, which I 

 have never seen growing elsewhere. It grows in every 

 foothold that it can find, and the bees store considerable 

 honey from it if they are strong in time to catch it. It 

 grows some like the blueberry-bush, only it is more like a 

 vine, and has a long, yellowish blossom. We also have the 

 willow-herb and two kinds of asters. 



John R. Schmidt says on page 785 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1899, that there is only one kind of aster, and 

 that he thinks the color leads to the false idea that there 

 are t%vo kinds, but if he will come here and examine the 

 aster he will find two, if not three, different kinds. They 

 are difl'erent in size of stalks; one kind branches out very 

 wide and low, with a very small blossom, and the other 

 kind grows tall, with a very large blossom. We also have 

 more white clover and dandelions in Clark Count}' than 

 almost any other part of the State. 



For drawbacks in Clark County I will say that there is 

 just one, and that is that we have so much rain in the 

 spring at breeding-time. Still, the rainy spell varies so 

 that we sometimes get our bees bred up quite strong before 

 it sets in ; but should it begin at the time the bees are put 

 out on the stands, and last any length of time, then gen- 

 erally the case would show an unfavorable result. Still, I 

 think and know that the rainy spell in the spring would not 

 be so bad if it were not for there being so much sap in the 

 maple-trees to encourage the bees to come out. Without 

 the rain}' spell, and if perchance a week or so of fine 

 weather, even if the snow is not all off, the bees will fetch 

 in from one-half to 10 pounds of the thin, watery sap of 

 maple-trees. But if the rainy spell sets in the bees get ex- 

 cited over it, and will go out just the same if it is rainy or 



