'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



23 



me believe something. He puts royal cells into 

 tiic h've behind my back, and would then per- 

 suade me that tlie queeulcss bees had built 

 them." Boma locuta, re,s fiiiita, thought I. 

 Our bce-colleaiiue Soiiman could, indeed, hardly 

 have expressed himself worse. 



The Arab holds the erroneous opinion that at 

 the time of swarmiug there are several queens in 

 oue and the same hive ; and that if the stock 

 does not swarm, or he does not divide it, the 

 old mother is always killed by the young queens. 



6. "In the middle of summer (August) when 

 the Nile rises and overflows its banks, the 

 Es5''ptiaa bee-master cuts out the honeycombs. 

 Wliilst this is being done the entrance is stop- 

 ped, and the disc at the back of the hive being 

 removed, the bees are driven towards the front, 

 by means of smoke. A knife having been used 

 to loosen them at the top, perhaps three-fifths 

 of the honey-laden circuhir-shaped combs are 

 taken out. Combs containing brood-cells are 

 not meddled with ; and if at any time the Arab 

 by mistake takes out a comb containing eggs, 

 larvae, or sealed brood, he immediately returns 

 it again. The destruction of bees by sulphur 

 is unknown." 



In Egypt they also follow the swarming and 

 depriving:]: system. To destroy brood is there 

 held as a sin. What, indeed, would Soliman 

 call those German bee-keepers who teach that 

 at the time of the blooming of the willow (the 

 end of March or beginning of April) one should 

 cut out of the stocks all empty and brood-combs 

 up to the sealed honey at the top? Verily all 

 that they do in strange lands and distant parts 

 of the earth is not so much amiss. 



7. " Soliman is truly a great smoker, yet he 

 never employs tobacco in his operations, but 



I smokes bees only with dried cowdung." 



I have before stated that the Egyptian bee 

 stings onlj'' when irritated, and I now repeat the 

 same, in order to avoid mistakes; but on the 

 other hand, if irritated it is extremely vicious. 



I at first, operated on the imported colony 

 without smoke ; and as I was neither stung nor 

 otherwise molested by the bees, I could then 

 with truth assert that the Egyptian bee did not 

 sting. About four weeks afferwards I made use 

 of cigar-smoke when withdrawing an Egyptian 

 brood-comb in order to remove it. I forthwith 

 received eleven stings in the face and five in the 

 bauds. The other day I purpose, y operated 

 with tobacco smoke, and, having on no bee-cap, 

 was compelled to run away. All recent obser- 

 vations go to prove that tobacco smoke excites 

 the greatest wrath in the Egyptian bee. With 

 the Gejiuan and Italian bees the human breath 

 produces the same etFect. If the ire of an 

 Egyptian stock is once excited, it remains for a 

 long time extiemely vicious, and when it has 

 at last calmed down, we need use but a few 

 whiffs of tobacco smoke to see the rage of the 

 little insect break out again in all its full fury. 

 We can understand with what spirit the Egyp- 

 tian bee sets upon people, when w^e consider the 

 extraordinary agility and vivacity of the insect. 

 In order to subdue its irritation, I use the smoke 



JThis deprivation Is effected by cutting combs out of 

 the hives.— A Devonbhiee Bee-keeper. 



of decayed willow wood, (touchwood,) and 

 this convei'ts its cnura'^e into embarrassment, 

 despondency, and dread. They will even then 

 fly at the operator, circle around liim like 

 mad, and piicli on his face, hands, &c., curv- 

 ing themselves at the fame time as if they 

 Avould sting, but mostly fly off agnin without 

 having done so. I have not yet tried upon the 

 Egyptians the cfl"ect of smoke from dried cow- 

 dung 



8. "The Egyptian-cylinder hives are four 

 feet long * and are made of a compost of Nile 

 mud and cowdung. The Arab makes a mould 

 of reeds, round which he plasters the well- 

 kneaded material to the thickness of about 3 

 inches. Wlien the cylinder which is thus form- 

 ed becomes dry, the reedwoi'k is withdrawn. 

 Straw hives are unknown iu any part of Egypt. 

 In Upper Egypt, iu addition to these cylinders, 

 they also use as bee-hives movable pots and 

 pans formed of the same material. Stray 

 swarms are frequently discovered on the ground, 

 when, if the finder has not the courage to hive 

 them, and the swarms be on his own land, he 

 takes Nile mud, mixed with cowdung, and 

 builds a little hut in the form of an oven, clos- 

 ing up the hole which he has left, by means of 

 a door formed of the sanie material." 



Travelers tell us not unfrequently of bee-hives 

 which they have seen in Es:ypt. So, for exam- 

 ple, De Maillet in his Description de VEgypte 

 speaks of " hives," "bee-hives," and " honey- 

 hives." Among the Egyptian "bee-hives" 

 they have not, up to the present time, con- 

 trived straw hives, but only cylinders, pots, 

 &c., formed of Nile mud. There is positively 

 no reason whatever for supposing that the an- 

 cient Egyptians used straw hives, since straw 

 is, on account of its retention of heat, a most 

 unfit material for bee-hives iu this country. 



9. "The Egyptians place their bee. hives as 

 near as possible to the clover fields. In the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of the cylinder-hives, 

 which are piled up like drain-pipes, is erected a 

 dwelling for the bee-watchman." 



Bees collect the most honey from clover. The 

 clover Avhich is so abundantly cultivated in 

 Egypt, Trifblium alexandrinum, should also be 

 cultivated by the Berlin Acclimatisation Society 

 in the experimental fields iu Berlin, where, 

 through sowing the original seed, they had such a 

 brilliant result in the year 1862. The plant is an 

 anuua,l, and the seed raised, even on good soil, 

 in this locality, is wanting in the vigor ne- 

 cessary to produce the superior clover which 

 we find iu its native country. To import seed 

 annually would, with the high cost of transport 

 and the doubtfulness of the supply, be doubly 

 disadvantageous. 



10. " Travelling with bee-stocks is no longer 

 seen in Eaypt." 



According to various accounts, the ancient 

 Egyptians practiced a profitable system of migra- 

 tory bee-keeping. De Maillet related (1740), 

 that they then still trade use of the Nile in order 

 to obtain a rich honey harvest. "In Egypt 

 they have preserved a custom, introduced by the 

 ancients, of maintaining bees in a very peculiar 



♦About 3 feet 10 inches English measure. 



