THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



51 



It has frequently fallen under our experience 

 that the removal of a hive to a distant place is 

 not always a cure for the evil that prevails, for 

 such are the activity and vigilance of the hees, 

 that they will discover a weak hive at any dis- 

 tance from the apiary. Under these circum- 

 stances Y/e advise the proprietor to take the 

 hive into a granary or other outhouse, in which 

 there is a window fronting the south, at which 

 the hive must be placed, but the entrance so 

 closed that no bees can come out. A little food 

 should be given to them; and in .about three 

 or four days the window may be opened, and 

 the bees set at liberty. This, however, must 

 only be done in very fine weather. Should the 

 hive be discovered by the strangers, the win- 

 dow can be immediately closed, and all further 

 attack is then prevented. In this case, how- 

 ever, a number of the native bees, who actually 

 belong to the hive, will be necessarily excluded, 

 and which perhaps cannot obtain admission 

 Avithout also admitting the strangers. In the 

 course of an hour, h@wever, the strangers, dis- 

 appointed of their booty, will retire, and the 

 lawful bees may then be permitted to enter. 



When a liive is removed, a ruse de guerre 

 should be played off, and an empty hive put in 

 its place. This will amuse the robbers return- 

 ing on the following day, and will prevent them 

 attacking any other hive, which might prove 

 too weak to oppose them; for the same proverb 

 holds good with bees as with men, that stolen 

 goods are sweet; and Avhen the bees of a hive 

 once take to robbing, they follow the occupa- 

 tion with the greatest ardor, and the best api- 

 ary, under such circumstances, will be soon 

 depopulated. — Hidsch. 



Bees in Africa. 



FROM burton's TRAVELS. 



The 2d of September saw us en route to Ma- 

 renga Mk'hali, or the "brackish water." * 

 """ * * Here, for the first time, bee- 

 hives, called by the coast people mazinga, "can- 

 nons," from their shape, hollowed cylindrical 

 logs, closed with grass and puddle at both ends, 

 and provided with an oval opening in the cen- 

 tre, were seen hanging to the branches of the 

 foliaged trees. 

 * -:.- -X- * •» * * 



We made honne cTiere of Rubuga, which is 

 celebrated for its milk and meat, ghee, and ho- 

 ney. On the way-side were numerous hives, 

 the mazinga, or "cannon," before described. 

 Here, however, they were raised out of the 

 reach of ants, white and black, upon a pair of 

 short forked supporters, instead ®f being sus- 

 pended from the branches of a tall tree. 



The East Africans ignore the sparkling be- 

 rilieorhydrorael of Abyssinia and Harar, and the 

 mead of the Bushman race. Yet honey abounds 

 throughout the country, and near the villages 

 log hives, which fr@ni their shape are called 

 mazinga or cannsns by the people, hang from 

 every rail and shady tree. 



Bees also swarm in the jungles, perferming 

 an important part in the vegetable economy by 



mascnlatiou or caprification, and the convej'- 

 ance of pollen. Their produce is of two kinds. 

 The cheaper, resembling the wasp honey of Eu- 

 rope, is found in the forest and slored in gourds. 

 More than half filled with dirt and wood bark, 

 it affords but little wax; the liquid is thin and 

 watery, and it has a peculiarly unpleasant fla- 

 vor. The better variety, the hive honey, is as su • 

 perior to the produce of the jungle as it is inferior 

 to that of India and more civilized lands. It is 

 tolerable until kept too long, and it supplies a 

 good yellow wax, used by the Arabs to mix 

 with tallow in the manufacture of "dips." 



The best honey is sold after the rains; but 

 the African hoards his store till it reddens, show- 

 ing the first stage of fermentation. He will eat 

 it after the second or third year, when it thins, 

 froths, and becomes a rufous-brown fluid of 

 unsavory taste; and he barely takes the trouble 

 to remove the comb, though the Arabs set him 

 the example of straining the honey through 

 bags of plantain straw or matting. Decompo- 

 sition, moreover, is assisted by softening the 

 honey over the fire to extract the wax instead 

 of placing it in the sun. The price varies from 

 one to three "cloths" for a large gourd full. 

 When cheap, the Arabs make from it "honey 

 sugar." The material, after being strained and 

 cleaned, is stored for two or three vt-eeks in a 

 cool place till surface granulation takes place; 

 the produce resembles in taste and ap!)earance 

 coarse brown sugar. The "siki," a vinegar of 

 the country, is also made of one part honey 

 and four of water, left for a fortnight to acetize; 

 it is weak and insipid. Honey is the only sweet- 

 ener in the country, except in places where the 

 sugar-cane grows, namely, the maritime and 

 Lakist regions. The people chew this, ignor- 

 ing the simple art of extracting and inspissating 

 the juice; nor do they, like the natives of 

 Usumbara, convert it into an inebrient. Yet 

 sugar attracts them like files; they clap their 

 hands with delight at the taste; they buy it for 

 its weight of ivory, and if a thimble full of the 

 powder happen to fall upon the ground, they 

 eat an ounce of earth rather than lose a grain 

 of it. 



The forest which we now entered, situated 

 4,535 feet above the level of the sea, abounded 

 in bees. •• '" * * These became 

 more plentiful in the heights, as on the upper 

 regions of Fernando Po. Already at Mapanya, 

 we had seen in the hands of the villagers a 

 dark and dirty comb. The savages ignore hives, 

 even to the extent of the East African log or 

 "cannen." In the upper regions, where a clsver 

 abounds, like the Retama of Teneriffe, to which 

 the hives are yearly rcmevedj the honey is 

 excellent. The creatures build in hollow trees, 

 producing after four days' labor, it is said, a 

 delicious white honey, which is easily taken 

 from them, even in the day time. Our camp 

 was infested by them; they seek moisture, and 

 disappear in swarms before cold or wind, mist 

 or night. The busy insect appears here, as at 

 Fernando P©, unusually amiable, sociable, aud 

 stupid, and its stings were little more painful 

 than those of t) ■ horse-fly. It is difl"crent in 



