121 



Apiculture in India. 



An interesting description of " bee- 

 houses " and " swarming," as practiced 

 in India, is given by a correspondent of 

 the Agricultural Gazette, of London, 

 England, who remarks that bee-keepingr 

 is the sole business of some whole vil- 

 lages. He describes the bee-houses in 

 use there as follows : 



k1. They are framed of wood, leaving 

 in the walls open spaces of about 2 feet 

 high and from 10 to 12 feet long, which 

 are subsequently tilled up with stones 

 and clay, after which the whole is 

 plastered inside and out, with a pre- 

 paration of gypsum, which is found in 

 abundance in the hills. The roofs are 

 flat, of beaten clay, and the eaves pro- 

 ject about 3 feet beyond the walls. As 

 the whole weight of the roof rests en- 

 tirely on the wooden framework, the 

 stones and clay, with which any one of 

 the spaces is filled, can at any time be 

 removed and replaced without at all 

 interfering with the stability. 



In each of these spaces, particularly 

 in the walls facing the south, is placed 

 one or more round earthenware water- 

 pots, the height of which ought to be 

 equal exactly to the thickness of the 

 wall ; these are built into the wall lying 

 on either side, with the round bottom 

 outside, and its extreme convexity flush 

 with the outside of the wall; whilst the 

 mouth of the vessel, which is 6 or 8 

 inches in diameter, is flush with the 

 wall in the inside of a room ; in some 

 houses there is as many as 40 of these 

 waterpots thus imbedded. All that is 

 now wanted is to make a small hole on 

 the outside convex bottom of each 

 waterpot for the bees to enter — stick on 

 a small patch of clay below it for them 

 to alight on — put in a swarm and close 

 the mouth of the pot with an earthen- 

 ware lid made to fit. When honey is to 

 be removed, all that is required is for 

 the operator to enter the house, close 

 the door, tap on the lid of the pot to 

 drive out the bees, or, if that is not 

 sufficient, open the lid a little and blow- 

 in two or three puffs of smoke from a 

 lighted rag, then open the lid fully and 

 remove as much of the honey as may be 

 deemed expedient, after which the 

 mouth of the pot is reclosed, and the 

 bees soon return and go to work again. 

 As the houses are occupied by the 

 family as well as the cattle of the 

 owners, and in winter pretty constant 

 tires are kept up, the bees, no doubt, 

 benefit by the heat. 



Besides these hives, which are never 



killed off, each house generally has a 

 large number of others, the result of 

 swarming, which are managed in a 

 different way. For these a hive is pre- 

 pared thus : A piece of the trunk of a 

 pine or cedar tree, of about 18 inches 

 in diameter, is cut to a length of 2% 

 feet; this is split down the middle, and 

 each half hollowed out in the center, so 

 that when rejoined there is a consider- 

 able space inside. A hole is made in 

 one of the halves for the bees to enter ; 

 and a swarm having been secured, it is 

 lodged in the hollow log, the two parts 

 of which, having been securely tied 

 together, are then hung up close under 

 the projecting eaves of ihe house and 

 well out of the reach of bears, which 

 are numerous in the district, and are 

 very partial to honey. 



Foul Brood.— Mr. Jas. Shearer, of 

 Cairnie, Scotland, remarks concerning 

 the present prospect for bee-culture, 

 that "not one colony in fifty will sur- 

 vive the winter without food, and it is 

 also feared that foul-brood is more than 

 commonly prevalent. I have one colony 

 affected. I have never before seen it 

 or had it in any of my hives. In ordi- 

 nary thriving colonies there are three 

 different substances to be seen in the 

 cells — namely, honey, pollen, and young 

 bees. In the case I refer to now, 

 there is a fourth substance, and when 

 the lid is taken off the cell there can be 

 taken out a sticky brown stuff. It ap- 

 pears here and there in a hive, and 

 is the worst disease that affects bees." 



m* Dr. W. W. Hipolite, of DeValFs 

 Bluff, Ark., the Vice President of the 

 North American Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, whom the Little Rock Demo- 

 crat, calls ." the Honey King of Arkan- 

 sas," has just delivered an able address 

 before the White River Medical Society 

 at Brinkley. Ark., a copy of which is 

 on our desk. 



W Mr. A. Holly, Girard, Mich., has 

 sent us a bellows for a smoker, as made 

 and used by him last summer. Its 

 peculiarity being that it lias two inclined 

 pieces of wood where the leather is used 

 in the ordinary bellows, and it has a 

 double valve. It is added to our Museum. 



