Jan. 17, 1907 



American lee Journal 



mj' father is a New York State Inspec- 

 tor of bee-diseases, etc. And we have 

 532 colonies of bees, fall count, which 

 gave us over lo tons of coinb honey this 

 year, which went to marlcet in October. 

 Middleburg. X. Y. 



Native Bee- Keeping in East 

 Africa 



BY F, GREINER, 



Saeuberlich, a missionary, who has 

 been among the negro people of Africa 

 for iS years, tells in "Die Biene" what he 

 has observed during these years in re- 

 gard to bee-keeping. The following is 

 an extract : 



The African bee is very light in color 

 and slightly smaller than the Italian, and 

 the brown or German bee. As to the 

 stinging propensity, it is about on a par 

 with the latter. 



The kind of apiculture I am about to 

 describe is probably nearly as old as the 

 hills. The son learns from the father, 

 and nothing new is added. As in other 

 parts of the world, hollow trees are 

 favorite places for bees to build their 

 combs. The trees being large, and the 

 timber hard, it required much time and 

 expenditure of labor to obtain the sweet, 

 particularly as the negro's tools are very 

 inferior, consisting only of a small ax 

 tied to the helve with a piece of rhi- 

 noceros skin. 



Although the negro does not econo- 

 mize in time, yet he must have come to 

 the conclusion that it would be an ad- 

 vantage to furnish the bees such hives 

 as would make it easier for him to se- 

 cure his harvest. Advanced apiculture, 

 therefore, consists in putting out decoy 

 hives, and robbing them when they have 

 become inhabited and are filled. 



The manner of making hives is very 

 laborious and the process slow. A saw 

 being unknown, all the cutting is done 

 with the aforesaid ax, and another tool 

 similar to a carpenter's adz, but smaller. 

 The latter is used in hollowing out log- 

 gums, and is made in similar fashion 

 as the ax, tied to the handle by means 

 of rhinoceros or hippopotamus skin. 



Soft-wood timbers are naturally pre- 

 ferred by the natives for hive-purposes. 

 The logs are cut in 3-foot lengths, then 

 peeled, and eventually excavated or hol- 

 lowed out. It requires several days' 

 work to hollow out one hive. At first 

 this work is done roughly, and when in 

 this condition the log-gums are trans- 

 ported to the village. Here they are 

 finished up and made very smooth, in- 

 side as well as outside. The cover and 

 bottom are fastened on with wooden 

 pins. It is a most tedious process to 

 work the "boards" out of logs, with 

 the tools described. 



A hole about 2 inches square is cut 

 into each hive for an entrance near the 

 center of it, and then it is ready to be 

 put in some tree, often many miles from 

 home. Each hive bears the mark of the 

 owner, and this may be seen from a 

 distance. It is usually recognized by 

 the natives as evidences of ownership. 

 Some of these "bee-keepers" own as 

 many as 200 such liives, of which, how- 

 ever, seldom more than half are occu- 

 pied b}' bees. 



Two methods are practised to fasten 

 the hives up in the trees. Some prefer 

 to hang them up b\ means of ropes ; 

 others select a favor.ible spot on two 

 stout limbs, then pin the hive to the 

 tree. 



In the putting up of these hives care 

 is taken so to fasten them that neither 

 wind nor quadruped animals can upset 

 them. A certain four-footed animal, the 

 size of a ground-hog. or larger, is very 

 eager for honey and wax, and is apt to 

 visit these hives. As expert climbers 

 it is an easy matter to reach them. They 

 will then upset them if they can, and 

 help themselves to the broken comb, 

 then on the ground. The natives sel- 

 dom place more than 2 or 3 hives in 

 one tree, generally only one. This work 

 is done in September or October. 



Towards the end of October the rainy 

 season commences, and soon the ground 

 is covered with grasses and flowers. The 

 honey season is at hand. Usually the 

 rain occurs at night. There is neither 

 cold nor winds, and the bees work 12 

 hours uninterruptedly, day after day. 

 After the beginning of this honey sea- 

 son we can see swarms of bees going 

 over our heads every day. Occasion- 

 ally the attempt is made to hive a swarm, 

 but only about one in 20 will stay. It 

 is difficult to say why this is so. 



With the beginning of January the 

 real honey harvest commences ; it lasts 

 till July, and immense quantities of 

 honey are stored by the bees. The na- 

 tives never "tackle" a bee-hive till after 

 sun-down. A bee-hat is unknown among 

 them ; it would be useless, anyway, as 

 the face is only a very small part of the 

 vulnerable portion of their bodies. When 

 robbing the hives a torch-light is used, 

 and a large portion of the bees are nat- 

 urally burned. In consequence many a 

 colony is thus totally ruined. The ma- 

 jority of hives are lowered to the ground 

 by means of ropes before robbing them, 

 and put up again afterward. 



When the more distant hives are to be 

 (mal) treated, caravans of from 10 to 20 

 men and women start out and are many 

 days on their way. The combs are 

 mashed down and put up in barrels and 

 bags, consequently the honey contains 

 many impurities, dead bees, etc. The 

 barrels are of wood, covered and bot- 

 tomed with buffalo skin. The bags are 

 made of goat-skins, which have seen 

 long use as bedding previously. Recep- 

 tacles for honey are never washed. It 

 would be contrary to the common uses. 



Much of the honey is made up into 

 wine, ot ivhich the native is very fon<i 

 The men who climb the trees to obtain 

 the honey from the hives are often 

 well under the influence of this honey- 

 wine, when doing the work, and it is 

 no rare occurrence that some of them, 

 on this account, have serious accidents 

 happen to them by way of falling, break- 

 ing their limbs, etc. — Information from 

 Deutsche Bienenzucht, 



Best Size of Honey-Sections 



BY K, E, .MKRRILL. 



I have read with great pleasure the 

 articles by Mr. T. K. Massie, page 783 

 (1906) and L. 'V. Ricketts on page 8 



(1907), on the subject of best size for 

 honey-sections. I would like to see a 

 sample of a section for comb honey that 

 will actually hold 2 pounds, with sepa- 

 rator or fence, but would prefer one 

 plain, for, from the e.xperience I have 

 had with sections, I prefer the former. 

 The fence separators cost more than the 

 slotted wood, and as Mr. ^lassie says, 

 "Some of them are verj' flimsily made 

 and do not last long." However, it is 

 rather difficult to say which section I 

 would prefer, for we have always used 

 the 2-bee-wa\' sections, and I have con- 

 sidered the matter very much. 



I have concluded that a comb thick 

 enough and large enough to weigh 2 

 pounds instead of one pound would be 

 much better, either in the plain or bee- 

 way section. All considered, I think 

 it would be the best size of honey-sec- 

 tion, and as coming as 'near the average 

 as can be. Instead of 16 ounces, have 

 32 ounces as near the average as possi- 

 ble, although it is rather difficult for me 

 or any bee-keepers in this country or 

 any other country to select a section, 

 (or a weight for a section), to be the 

 e.xact number of ounces the same all the 

 way through a crop. Of course, it would 

 be different, if we bee-keepers could 

 govern so as to make things suit us, 

 but as we can not, and haven't the 

 power to confine the bees to a certain 

 size section, we will have to be satis- 

 fied fully with what they do for us. 



The sections we are now using are 

 the 4^x4^x1^, bee-way sections, and 

 weigh an average of onlj- 142-3 ounces 

 when filled as stated. Now the question 

 is, Would it not be better for both the 

 producer and the consumer, if bee-keep- 

 ers in general would adopt a section 

 which, when filled as mentioned, would 

 average 32 ounces, or 2 pounds each, or 

 1,000 sections to weigh a ton, or a very 

 few pounds more or less, instead of be- 

 ing 150 or 250 pounds over. Short 

 weight is not an advantage to the bee- 

 keeper with the sections now in general 

 use, or the sections we are using, as 

 above mentioned. We have to give about 

 120 sections for 100 pounds of honey by 

 weight. The question is, Would it be 

 best to make such a change?, and if best, 

 then what size of section should we 

 adopt? 



Having very carefully considered the 

 matter from my standpoint, I have come 

 to the conclusion that there is no bet- 

 ter size of sections than one that would 

 hold as nearly 2 pounds as possible, or i 

 ounce over. For me, I would think it 

 would be very advisable, less work and 

 less expense to the bee-keeper in gen- 

 eral, if we could adopt a section of this 

 kind. Of course we would all have to 

 make some changes in our supply line, 

 such as supers and shipping-cases, but, 

 as far as I am concerned, I think I 

 would save big money in the end. As 

 for supers, I suppose they would have 

 to be a little higher, hold less sections, 

 contain more honey, or double the 

 amount of honey ; and we would have 

 to change our shipping-cases to fit the 

 new style of section, or a section, when 

 fully completed, weighing 2 pounds. 



I think all bee-keepers should consider 

 the matter as to the expense of pro- 

 ducing comb honey in 2-pound sections, 

 instead of I -pound. 



