THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



151 



some, the demand was great for those 

 lioldintr but a single pound. 



The following was read from Frank 

 lienton, of Munich, Germany, on 



AriS DORSATA AND THE BEES OF THE 

 ORIEKT. 



When you are Katliered i" the Cre eent 

 City, 1 shall be under tlie paluis winch 

 skii-t tlie sands of Great Sahara. Of eourse 

 It Is for our little insects that I Ro thence, 

 and I shall not fail to tell you, later, of 

 the work and experiences of the journey 

 tliere, which Is undertaken, primarily, for 

 the purpose of establlsliinK an apiary for 

 parties ownlns estates In tlie province of 

 Tunis In .Nortliern Africa. 



In the midst of the preparation for this 

 .journey, and the sulisequent journey 

 farther east— to Esypt, Cyprus and Syria 

 — [ tind It very difficult to prepare any- 

 thing like an essay proper on any subject, 

 thougli, did time permit, I would gladly 

 detail a number of my observations and 

 experiences In connection with the bees, 

 hee-huntlng, and bee-keeping in India, 

 while on a journey there during the win- 

 ter of 18811-81 after new races of bees, 

 more especially the great "Apis dorsata." 

 I shall, however, be obliged to ask to be 

 excused If I only present a few lines most 

 of which were hastily written for publi- 

 cation in England a year or so ago. 



Most of the "Apis dorsata" colonies 

 which I saw, consisted of but one huge 

 comb attached to a large branch, or to 

 some overhanging ledge of rooks. But 

 this giant honey-bee (It surely deserves 

 the name "honey-bee,'' although it is not 

 cultivated), does sometimes build several 

 combs side by side, tor, when in Ceylon 1 

 transferred into a mammoth movable- 

 frame hive a colony which had built tlu'ee 

 parallel combs in a cavity of the rocks. I 

 found these bees In the Knrunegala dis- 

 trict, at a place known to the natives as 

 Bambera-galla (" Apis dorsata " rock). It 

 was a wild forest region, some miles from 

 any habitation, rarely visited, so that 1 

 had nuich ditticulty in transporting my 

 hives and implements to the place, and 

 getting up to the top of the rock, which, 

 perched on tlie side of a mountain, tower- 

 ed up nearly a hundred feet from the 

 lower side. The walls on all sides were 

 either perpendicular or overhanging, and 

 I was at first at much loss to know how 

 we were to get up to the dozen or more 

 huge colonies whose combs were sus- 

 pended from 3 to i feet from one of the 

 overhanging ledges near the summit. 



But the natives, of whom there were a 

 dozen present, led me by a crevice just 

 large enough to admit a mans body into 

 the Interior of the rock, and, by building 

 a ladder of poles and rattans, we reached 

 a shilling ledge some 40 feet up : thence 

 winding around we came nearer the sum- 

 mit, and at last found a dark passage lead- 

 ing right up through the centre of the 

 rock. The top was nearly level, and 

 about 10 feet square. A cavity enclosed 

 on all sides but one, and partially roofed 

 over, contained a large colony of the 

 " Apis dor.-ata," which, of course, I had 

 not been able to see from below. 



The bees drove us down in the day- 

 time, but at night with the aid of a torch 

 and smoke, I cut out the combs and fitted 

 them into frames which were placed into 

 a liive. I had learned that the best time 

 to approach these bees in their forest 

 lodgment is at night, as they do not Hy 

 much then. The frames of my hives were 

 about 12 inches deep by is inches long, 

 and so the combs were cut accordingly. I 

 think larger frames would have been bet- 

 ter, hut not so easy to transport. As the 

 " Apis dorsata" comb is 15^ Inches thick, 

 Uiebarsof my frames had been made of 

 that width. There were some W to 60 

 pounds of honey In the combs of this col- 

 ony, and after I had given the bees a fair 



supply the natives had a nice feast, and 

 some was left over ; besides, they eagerly 

 devoured the bils of brood which did not 

 lind place in the hive. 



As this was towards the close of the 

 season when the bees find little honey, 

 just before the swarming season, it is fair 

 to presume that the amount of honey 

 would be much greater at almost any 

 other time, and the huge combs would 

 have made a nice lump of wax. We se- 

 cured but one other colony of the dozen 

 that were on the overhanging ledge of 

 rock; the risk to limb and life being too 

 great to try for any more there, we moved 

 on to other localities. Once in movable- 

 comb hives I did not find the " Apis dor- 

 sata" intractable, but on the other hand, 

 quite easily controlled, even without 

 smoke ; and though its industry did not, 

 during the time that I was in possession 

 of several colonies, equal my expectations 

 in this direction, yet it must be admitted 

 that the colonies were hardly in fair con- 

 dition to furnish a test case, before a 

 severe (it of sickness which overtook nie 

 prevented my giving them proper atten- 

 tion. Then came the loss of the queens 

 after their long journey to Syria, at a time 

 when no brood remained In the hives. 

 All this was but the consecpience of my 

 prostration with fever. I do not, there- 

 fore, know to this day whether "Apis 

 dorsata " can be domesticated or not, or 

 whether if domesticated, it would be a 

 profitable bee to rear. It is, however, an 

 experiment well worthy of trial, and a 

 subject well worth the attention of the 

 higiiest tribunal in bee-matters which 

 meets on the shores of the New World. 



The little "Apis Indica" builds its 

 parallel combs {% of an inch thick, .36 

 cells on each side of a square inch) in 

 hollow trees, rock cavities, etc., and is 

 cultivated to a certain extent In earthen 

 pots, wooden skeps, etc. : yet I do not be 

 lieve with nmch profit. The queens are 

 prolific, and the workers Industrious, but 

 it is what the Germans would surely call 

 a swarm-bee. And if kept in movalile- 

 franie hives, the great difficulty would be 

 the absconding of the liees at nearly 

 every manipulation, notwithstanding tlie 

 presence of brood and honey. I have 

 lively recollections of getting the bees of 

 a recently transferred colony whose 

 combs I was fixing a little, back into their 

 hive <■> times in succession on one morning, 

 performing in these processes a good many 

 gymnastics on the roofs and trees in the 

 vicinity of my apiary. Before 1 learned 

 of this peculiarity of " Apis Indica," I 

 formed quite a favorable opinion of it ; 

 though, from all that i saw, I should 

 think that 24 pounds of honey reported as 

 its yield in the Wynaad, rather high, but, 

 of course, I judge merely by the amounts 

 I saw in the combs of the colony which I 

 captured. As the cause for absconding 

 seems to lie In the very excitable nature 

 of these bees, I would recommend the use 

 of smoke only when absolutely necessary. 

 They can generally be driven from combs 

 by blowing them strongly, and become 

 less excited than when smoked. They 

 can be brushed or shaken from the combs 

 easily, as the worker brood-coinbs are 

 but .5-8 of an inch thick, the bars of frame 

 hives intended for these bees should be 

 but .5-8 wide instead of % to 1 Inch, as for 

 "Apis mellifica," and the spacing but k' 

 to % of an inch at the most. 



In Ceylon I found two parties who had 

 procured hives from England, which, of 

 course, were adapted to " Apis mellifica," 

 and had frames whose bars were 7-8 to 1 

 inch wide, and spaced so as to remain 



same race, but, even more, they belonged 

 to quite a distinct species. 



Whatever may be the result of any at- 

 tempt to cultivate the honey-producing 

 bees native to East India, I still feel sure 

 that, in the hands of a bee-master of suf- 

 ficient experience and knowledge of prin- 

 ciples to enable him to adapt him.self, or 

 rather his maiiagement, to circumstances, 

 any of the races of the species of " Apis 

 mellifica" can be made to tlirive in India. 

 I am certain that those colonies of " Apis 

 mellifica" which I took to Ceylon thrived 

 very well indeed during the time that I 

 had them und(;r my observation. 



1 look forward to the time when bee- 

 culture in India will be a source of no in- 

 considerable revenue ; in fact, I fear the 

 time will yet come when American bee- 

 keepers will find that their tons of deli- 

 cious nectar will have to compete in the 

 English market with tons of sweets gath- 

 ered on "India's coral strand." 



A vote of thanks was passed to Mr. 

 Benton for his very interesting essay. 



A short discussion ensued on the 

 "pollen theory" which received no 

 endorsement; the speakers being 

 Rev. L. .Johnson, Dr. Jesse Oren, C. 

 P. Dadant, C. F. Muth and others. 



The use of wide frames for side- 

 storing was also discussed by Mr. 

 Viallon, Mr. W^allace, Mr. Muth, and 

 Mr. L. .Johnson, all thinking that that 

 method was getting to be " a thing of 

 the past." 



Adjourned to S p. m. 



At H p.m. I'resident ]5rown called 

 the meeting to order, and Mr. Hart, 

 of Florida, read his essay on 



I'UOIirCINO, fUlilNG 

 HONEY Foil 



AND PKEPAEINO 

 MAKKET. 



to- }4 an inch apart. Of course these 

 parties could not understand why their 

 bees would not do the way the books said 

 that other people's bees were accustomed 

 to do, that is, build the combs regularly, 

 and but one in a frame, never once dream- 

 ing that, not only Wiie they not of the 



To the producer of extracted honey, 

 quantity and quality are questions ot 

 vital interest, and any information tend- 

 ing to increase the lormer or improve the 

 latter is joj fully received. lean hardly 

 hope to add anything new to either 

 of these questions, but as much ot what 

 has been written in regard to the_m has 

 not vet been accepted by all as facts 1 

 may 'be able to help to decide some ot the 

 as yet doubtful points. 



In considering the question of quantity, 

 the process that will give the greatest 

 nuinoerof pounds of honey from a given 

 number of colonies, and do it with the 

 least expenditure of labor and money, 

 seems to be tlie one sought for. I eriiaps 

 I can best convey my opinions upon these 

 matters by giving the methods which i 

 would follow were I to take an apiary and 

 work it for one year with the view of get- 

 ting all the extracted honey from it that 1 

 could. While doing this I wish it to be 

 remembered that I speak for my own 

 locality, vet there are many principles 

 that will 'apply equally to it and to all 

 others. , 



The honey-flow commences early in 

 January, and is usually checked by dry 

 weather late In March. It commences 

 again early in May, and continues until 

 about Aug. 10 ; from then until ^ept. l.'i 

 no honey is gathered, as a rule. After the 

 latter date a light flow commences, and 

 continues, some years, until the last ol 

 November, and when there is a large crop 

 of palmetto berries, a month later. Swarm- 

 ing commeuces from the middle of Jan- 

 nary to the middle of March, and con- 

 tinues until May, if not interrupted by the 

 drouth in April. I would have all mv 

 bees in lOframe Langstroth hives with 

 one story, as soon as the honey-flow and 

 weather would warrant. I would occa- 

 sionally spread the brood and insert an 

 empty comb in the middle of the brood- 

 nest. I would encourage the colonies to 



