276 



TIJE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[June 



[From the Ohio Farmer.] 



The Home of the Honey Bee. 



It is said tliat our honey Lee, the apia mellifiea, 

 originally came from Asia, and tliat from there 

 it was imported into Europe, and afterward to 

 our country, wliere it has had so welcome a 

 home and entered so largely into our resources 

 for comfort and revenue. 



Though this husy and profitable servant has 

 received many a fatal smoking and robbing as a 

 reward for its labors, yet it has the freedom of 

 our wide domain, and in the deep wilderness, 

 multitudes of swarms live in security, as pos- 

 sessors of all tlieir store. 



In this country the bee is considered an amia- 

 ble insect by its friends, seldom using its sting, 

 except when on the defensive. I have never 

 noticed this amiability, for several times when a 

 boy I received a tlnust that seemed to have been 

 given with "malice prepense." Severe as the 

 sting is here (especially when about the eye or 

 lips), I am satisfied that it is much more so in 

 the East. I never was stung while in that coun- 

 try by one, but from the accounts given by the 

 natives, and by foreigners who have sutfered 

 from them, I am sure it must be so. I believe 

 that in this country some persons can handle 

 bees with far less danger than others ; not be- 

 cause they are more kind and careful, but be- 

 cause they have a natural adaptation to the 

 work ; such as Rarey, Magner and Dudley have 

 had to the training of horses* 



The Siamese have their beehunters, and they 

 say that "only here and there one can follow the 

 business, because the bees so bite. The bee 

 men, they don't like the smell of, and they bite 

 them bvit little. They bite very hard and al- 

 ways when they get squeezed." 



They never domesticate them in Siam, but 

 hunt for them in the jungle, and when found, al- 

 ways rob them clean. This must provoke the 

 bees, but is not fatal to them, for they live in a 

 country where they have to lay nothing up for 

 winter, and when robbed of what they have on 

 hand, have (a la Chicago) only to begin anew. 



In this country the wild bees usually seek some 

 crevice or hollow tree in which to spread their 

 wax and deposit their stores. But there I was 

 told they buikl their combs in the open air, usu- 

 ally selecting as high a point as possible in the 

 tops of some of the lofty trees. Tlie point usually 

 chosen is on the under side of some limb just 

 when it leaves the body of the tree. This is 

 often found fifty or even seventy feet from the 

 ground. 



The beehunters have ways of tracing bees 

 similar to those practiced in our country. At a 

 certain point they expose some sweet scented 

 dish, find then tra^) the bees that gather there, 

 and after a time let one escape. Glad to be lib- 

 erated, it will rise in the air, and then make a bee 

 line for home. They watch the direction and 

 then follow on. When they need further direc- 

 tion another is let out, and on they go under its 

 lead, and then another, until they find the prize. 

 But yet they have not the honey in hand. It 



is full fifty feet above their heads on the lowest 

 limb of some stately tree. 



The beeman prepares to ascend. He takes his 

 cord and basket, his knife and resinous torch, 

 covers his body as well as he can with spare 

 clothes of his companions and commences the 

 ascent. When within a few feet of the comb, 

 he lights his torch which he lets drop just below 

 him. This fumigates his person and also puts 

 all the bees on the wing, and they fly around in 

 the greatest excitement and rage. He pays no 

 attention to them, but deliberately throws his 

 basket over the limb, and with his knife cuts off 

 the comb, and by a cord lets it down to his part- 

 ners bfelow. He then descends and has but few 

 stings to repent. 



The quantity usually gathered from any one 

 swarm is not large, for the bee is disposed, with 

 all the rest of the animal creation, to take life 

 easy, in that counti-y, where no winter store has 

 to be laid by, and 



"where everlasting; sprinsr abides 

 And never withering flowers." 



It is said that "every man is as lazy as he can 

 be," and probably the same is true of the "little 

 busy bee," that during one .short summer works 

 so faithfully and improves each "shining hour," 



" And gathers honey all the day, 

 From every opening flower." 



The honey is never brought to market there in 

 comb, but is always strained. It is not considered 

 much of a luxury, nor very salable as an article 

 of food. It is always very thin and looks more 

 like weak maple syrup than honey. But it has 

 a soft pleasant taste, and if we only could have 

 had some good bread and butter to have eaten 

 with it, no doubt it would have been in greater 

 demand. 



From the amount of beeswax that is in mar- 

 ket in Bangkok, it must be true that a great 

 quantity of honey is gathered every year from 

 the jungles roundabout. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Estractor. 



Mr. Editor : — We now intend attempting to 

 answer quite iv prominent question with corre- 

 spondents about how to manage with the ex- 

 tractor, extracted honey. 



In our large yield, we can work the extractor 

 by the side of the hive that we are operating on 

 unmolested by robbers. But at other times we 

 use a tight box, and as fast as we take out a 

 comb and get off the bees, we place it in the box, 

 shutting down the cover so that no bees <!an get 

 at it, and continue thus until we have taken out 

 all we wish from that hive. Then close the hive 

 and carry the box containing the honey into a 

 close room, there to extract the honey. We like 

 to keep one set of empty combs on hand to fill 

 the hive at the time. This saves opening again 

 to return the combs. We cut the caps off the 

 cells into a vessel that has a strainer in the bot- 

 tom, which permits all the honey to drip out. 



