1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



59 



explorers found one in northern 

 Greenland quite at home. 



More than this, our common hive 

 bees are found not only in temperate 

 regiiins of the earth but within the 

 tropics as well. I am not sure that 

 anyone can tell us where Apis inelli- 

 fica was first domesticated. The earli- 

 est records of its beint; cared for by 

 man are from Eiiypt, so far as I know, 

 which would indicate that its early 

 home was either western Asia or 

 uortheru Africa. 



The habit of the Apis Dorsata of 

 building its combs upon the under 

 side of the branches of trees would 

 seem to be a serious objection, but we 

 sometimes lind our hive bees doing 

 something quite like it. During the 

 past season I had a colony leave the 

 hive and go underneath and build its 

 combs and start its honey on the un- 

 der side of the bottom board. 



Still, we can not help thinking that 

 this habit of comb building would 

 make Apis Dorsata, for the present, 

 unprofitable and their honey of little 

 value except for the extractor. 



Could we find a bee twice the size 

 of the common bee, strong and active 

 and withal building its combs in a 

 hollow receptacle it would seem to be 

 a decided acquisition. May we not 

 expect to find something of this sort 

 in southern Asia ? Is it idle to say 

 that had there been such kind of bees 

 they would have been introduced be- 

 fore this ? Let us remember it is only 

 forty or fifty years since the large 

 Asiatic breeds of fowls, that have 

 proved so valuable, have been import- 

 ed. Great Britain alone claims to 

 have oUO species of wild bees, which 

 are, a large part of them, of the type 



of our humble bees. How many species 

 of bees closely allied to our domestic 

 bees there may be in southern Asia 

 no one knows, but we believe that 

 among them some will be sound of 

 great value to the honey producing 

 interests of the world. 



In looking over an old vol. of the 

 American Bee Journal I came across 

 the following under the title 



A CHINESE BEE. 



"The Apicultural Section of the 

 Entomological Society, at its annual 

 meeting in Paris, August, 1874. made 

 many interesting statements. M. Dur- 

 aud Saint Armand, a government offi- 

 cer in Cochin China, states that the 

 country possesses a bee twice the size 

 of ours, which, consequently, ought to 

 have a probocis long enough to extract 

 the honey from red clover which is 

 known to be very abundant. This 

 bee is found in great numbers all 

 along the coast, in a wild state, in 

 hollow trees, and the natives hunt 

 them for their wax. The extensive 

 forests of this country are leased for 

 the product of wax, which is to be 

 sold to the Chinese." 



Here then would appear to be our 

 l)ee twice the size of Apis mellifica and 

 living like them in hollow trees. Can 

 not our bee friends in France give us 

 more information in regard to these 

 bees ? I believe a large portion, if not 

 all, of Cochin China is now in the 

 hands of France. I should not have 

 thought so much of this statement had 

 I not in conversation with a retired 

 missionary learned of the same, or a 

 similar bee, under domestification by 

 the Chinese in western China. As he 

 was a young man, a native of this 

 town, brought up on a farm, I felt 

 that his statements were worthy of en- 

 tire confidence. He said the bees of 

 western China were in size midway 



