56 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



All of the above came to me after 

 the swarming season was over, so I 

 have had no chance to try the idea, 

 but the practical application to hiv- 

 ing a swarm is vouched for by four 

 gentlemen in whom I have every 

 confidence, so I hasten to pass along 

 the good news. If the method works 

 as efficiently as it is said to do, the 

 beekeeping world has learned some- 

 thing worth while. 



Victoria, B. C. 



Beekeeping in Costa Rica 



By \V. B. Gehrels 

 (Continued from January) 



AFTER fitting out a temporary 

 home in San Jose, I began to 

 look around for 'bees and the 

 best location for an apiary.. After a 

 futile hunt for bees for over a month 

 that took me over the largest part of 

 the country, I finally gave it up and 

 moved my family to Puntarenas on 

 the west coast, as I had decided that 

 this part offered the best prospects 

 for beekeeping, shipping my bees 

 hfere, also. 



Then I was called to Panama on 

 other business, returning to Punta- 

 renas in October. The bees were then 

 ready to swarm, with the hives full 

 of the best-flavored white honey. The 

 next thing necessary was some 

 empty hives and new supplies. There 

 was very little in this line in Costa 

 Rica, and to order supplies from the 

 States for immediate use was out of 

 the question, as freight rates, duty, 

 etc., were almost prohibitive, and 

 shipping was in such a condition that 

 you were considered lucky to get 

 your goods within six months after 

 placing the order. And then, what 

 amount of supplies would I need for 

 the increase from six colonies? 

 Everything looked promising to us, 

 but everything was new, and you 

 cannot judge correctly without some 

 previous experience. 



I went into the country and bought 

 15 fine logs of suitable timber for 

 lumber, took them to the nearest 

 sawmill, and had them sawed and 

 planed in boards seven-eighths inch 

 thick and from 10 to 16 inches wide. 

 Then I put up a saw table and gaso- 

 line engine at home and made by 

 own bee hives. The natives called it 

 a "honey factory." We used pochote 

 timber for lumber, which is a va- 

 riety of Costa Rica cedar. This is a 

 red, fine-grained, soft wood, very 

 easy to work, which shrinks and 

 warps very little, is proof against the 

 attack of wood ants, and very dura- 

 ble. It can be bought in the log up to 

 48 inches in diameter. 



By the last of March we had in- 

 creased the six colonies to 7S, and 

 also secured over 3,000 pounds of 

 honey, notwithstanding we had a 

 great deal of trouble in getting the 

 queens mated and laying. From 60 

 to 75 per cent of the young queens 

 would disappear about the time of 

 their wedding flight. This trouble 

 we attributed to our location. Pun- 

 tarenas is on a narrow peninsula 

 about 5 miles long and from 150 to 



300 yards wide, and water on both 

 sides. Under this condition the 

 queens had a good chance of drop- 

 ping into salt water in taking flight. 



We ordered a honey extractor from 

 the States in November, which ar- 

 rived at the end of March following, 

 almost in time to take off our crop 

 of honey. I had just finished ex- 

 tracting with a small extractor that 

 I had borrowed in San Jose. The 

 manufacturer of whom I had ordered 

 my machine stated that the delay 

 was not his fault, and that we were 

 lucky in being able to get shipping 

 space at all. 



At any rate, we had increased from 

 6 to 75 colonies, and secured 3,400 

 pounds of honey in about 5 months' 

 time, over half of the honey being 

 as good in quality and flavor as 

 white clover or Texas catsclaw, al- 

 most water white, and very thick. 

 Honey does not candy at Puntarenas. 



About this time the rainy season 

 set in and the honey flow decreased. 

 The rainy season lasts from April to 

 November, and is called winter here. 

 During this time it rains almost 

 every day. The dry season lasts 

 from November till April; this is 

 called summer. During this entire 

 period there often is not a single 

 shower. This dry period is the time 

 of heavy honey flov/, everything 

 blooms abundantly and this gives an 

 ideal extracting and working season. 

 This condition prevails on the west 

 coast, or the western slope of the 

 mountain only. 



Nothing seems to disturb the flow 

 of neotar, except possibly an 'occa- 

 sional day when we have north wind. 

 This produces a very dry, hot atmos- 

 phere, which reduces the honey flow 

 some. The tides also seem to affect 

 the secretion of nectar, possibly not 

 the tides themselves, but the same 

 force that produces the tides. The 

 strongest honey flow lasts about 3 

 hours during each day, and this time 

 seems to vary with the time of the 

 high tides. This may seem supersti- 

 tious to some. 



There are no end of flowers in 

 bloom the year around, but the 

 heaviest bloom period is during the 

 dry season. .1 will take up the honey- 



producing plants of Costa Rica in a 

 future article. 



In view of the large number of 

 young queens that we were losing, 

 our next step was to move our bees 

 a few miles inland, where the queens 

 would have enough land space to 

 take their flight. Consequently we 

 purchased two lots in a small village 

 about 3 miles inland, across «.he bay, 

 at the edge of the mangro\e. Here 

 the bees had access to many vari ties 

 of honey-producing flowers. 



Our local honey market is fairly 

 good, but we shipped our honey in 

 bulk to Liverpool, England, from 

 which source we had the best prices 

 offered. 



The new site that we bought for an 

 apiary is about 2 miles from Punta- 

 renas, across the bay, on the main 

 land, and can be easily reached by 

 boat. The place had cocoanut palms, 

 mango, guava and some kojol palm 

 trees, and was covered with weeds, 

 vines and brush and infested with 

 ants, rodents, toads, crabs and igu- 

 anas. We cleaned, burned, poisoned 

 and used the shotgun until, at this 

 writing, 12 months later, the place 

 is _ transformed into a presentable 

 apiary and orchard. 



We moved our bees by loading them 

 on a dugout or bongo, which is a boat 

 cut out of a tree by the natives. For 

 power we used the current of the ris- 

 ing tide. Returning with the empty 

 boat on the falling tide, the current 

 is very strong here owing to the great 

 rise and fall of tides. 



At this location the bees have man- 

 grove on one side, and forests fields 

 and pastures on the other side. 



We placed the bees on benches two 

 feet from the ground, facing each 

 colony in alternate directions, this 'to 

 save room on the benches, as we can 

 thus place them very close together, 

 and still minimize the danger of los- 

 ing young queens, which often hap- 

 pens when the colonies all face the 

 same direction, and are close togeth- 

 er. We also made our hive bottoms 

 very short, projecting an inch and 

 less for alighting space, in order to 

 have less room for toads and iguanas 

 to hold on while they eat bees. 



For shade during the summer or dry 



A Costa Rica apiary under papaya trees one year old from seed. 



