42 GUAM AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



The bureau of agriculture of the Philippine Islands has made 

 repeated attempts to introduce the honeybee from the United States, 

 but with such unsatisfactory results that arrangements were made 

 with this station to rear a number of colonies in hives furnished by 

 that jjureau. Early in the year 10 colonies were shipped, and these 

 colonies arrived in Manila apparently in good condition. In addi- 

 tion to these one colony was furnished to a private individual re- 

 siding in Manila, and four nuclei were furnished to a private individ- 

 ual in (luam. 



The native method of handling bees is similar to that practiced 

 GO years or more ago before the Langstroth hive was brought before 

 the public. Whenever swarms are hived, old packing boxes are 

 brought into use, chiefly because they are always at hand and rep- 

 resent no cash outlay. Wlien these box hives are robbed of honey, 

 through the absence of frames, such rough treatment is given the 

 bees that it usually ends in the death of the queen and the loss of the 

 whole brood. Generally the would-be beekeeper loses his enthusi- 

 asm because of the stings received during the operation. 



The writer has had considerable success with bees, and owns 60 

 colonies, distributed in five localities of the island, as follows: 

 Twenty-one at Yigo, 5 at Santa Rosa, 8 at Leguan, 20 at Agana (San 

 Ramon), and 6 at Anigua. 



During the past season all have done well, though those at Yigo 

 and Santa Rosa have done considerably better than the others. A 

 record of production covering 19 colonies situated at Yigo showed 

 that 1,680 pounds of surplus honey was extracted from January to 

 May, making an average of 88 pounds per colony, which compares 

 favorably wfth the production in many localities of the United 

 States. In December one colony was placed at Santa Rosa, and 

 later was increased to four by dividing. In May these colonies were 

 fairly strong, and produced 224 pounds of surplus honey, making an 

 average of 56 pounds of honey in addition to the increase of three 

 colonies. 



The single colony of honeybees introduced from Hawaii in 1907 

 throve so well that there are now thousands of colonies of wild bees 

 in hollow trees throughout the forests, as the progeny of this one 

 queen. From the strength of some of them, it does not seem that 

 inbreeding has done them any harm. The natives fell many of these 

 trees to obtain the honey they contain, and thus many times a valu- 

 able tree will be destroyed for a few cents' worth of honey. The 

 writer has practiced with much success a method of removing honey 

 and bees from hollow trees.^ This method is as follows: A small 

 colony or nucleus is placed in a hive and taken to the tree from 



1 Root, A. T. and E. R. ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. Medina, Ohio. 



