1S8() 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE. 



621 



honey for winter tlial wc wovhl not iiite on our own 

 tabling. A. J. Cook. 



Asriciiltiiral ("ollo-je, Midi., July H!. l«S(i. 



^ -— -w 



BEE-KEEPING IN CUBA. 



A DKSCliM'TlON OK ONK 1' TIIK I,A l!(i KST AI'IA- 

 l{li:S IN THE WOIM.I). 



^ IIR lidiicy bee was iuti-oiliK'oil into Ciiliii from 

 (PIV Spain at a very early ix-riod of its history; 



MO winter to inijiede tlieir lalior, they soon 

 si)r(:i(l to all |iarls of tlie island, and boe- 

 keepin^' lias lonj;- sinee heeenie (>ne of the establish- 

 ed industries. 'I'liere is i)i'obali]y no otlier eoiintry 

 ofetinal e.vteni on the s'lobe, which has furnished 

 an ei|ual amount of honey and beeswa.Y. The lat- 

 ter lias, for more than two centuries, illuminated 

 the churches of both this island and the mother 

 country, besides furnishin": the supply need(Ml for 

 other purposes, while the former has found a remu- 

 nerative market in all civilized countries, chiefly in 

 Germany, Ens'hind, France, and the United States. 

 A Cuban beehive is very simple, consisting' mere- 

 \y of a hollow palm log', or oblong' wooden bo.v, 10 to 

 1.') inches in diameler, and .") to (I feet in leng-th, 

 open at both ends. These hives are arrang'cd in a 

 horizontal position, three or four feet high, sup- 

 ported on a framework of Ions' bamboo i)oles rest- 

 ing on i)osts driven into the j^round. When these 

 liives are full of honey, the Cuban l)ee-keei)er, after 

 Ihoroujrhlj' smoking the bees, thrusts, into one end 

 of the hive, a long' sword-shaped knife and cuts the 

 combs loose from the inside walls. He then inserts 

 a Ions' ii'oii i<i'l, flattened at the end, and l)ent in the 

 form (,f a light angle, clear into the liroodnest 

 (which g'encrally occupies about 1.') inches in length 

 of the center of the hive), cuts the combs, and 

 pulls them out one by one. He then performs the 

 same operation on the other end of the hive, and 

 so continues until the whole apiary is gone over. 

 The combs are now submitted to pressure, and the 

 wax sepai'ated from the honey. Of course, the 

 lioney so obtained is not very pure, being mixed 

 witli pollen, iiropolis, dead bees, and the juices of 

 larvse, all of which tends to cause fermentation; 

 Cul)an honey (than which, when jiure, there is no 

 finer in the world) has gained an unenviable reputa- 

 tion. Native apiaries, of from hi) to ;iU;j or 400 liives, 

 are frequent, and sometimes as many ns 2000 are 

 lu'pt in a single yard. The season for surplus hon- 

 ey extends from October to April, the height of the 

 tlow being from the middle of December to the 

 middle of February; but there is almost always a 

 sufHciency for breeding purposes, and hence the 

 Cuban bee-keeper never resorts to feeding. He 

 "robs" his hives only once or twice during the 

 year, and seems satisfied with an average iiroduc- 

 tion of 75 to 100 lbs. of honey, and 4 or 5 lbs. of 

 beeswax per hive. 



Nearly three years ago the writer introduced, for 

 the Messrs. .1. N. & P. Casanova, 100 stocks of Ital- 

 ians in movable-frame hives, together with all the 

 modern appliances necessary to insure success. 

 They were located about 18 miles S. E. of Havana, 8 

 miles from the ocean, and, wo believe, constitutes 

 the first apiary on modern principles ever seen in 

 the island of Cuba; and to the gentlemen referred 

 to belongs the credit of this great change in the 

 systems of bee-keeping, from which promising re- 



sults will undoubtedly be realized by many of their 

 bi-ethren in the near future. 



MODEKN BEKIvEEPING VERSUS THE ()I,I) WAY. 



The year following the introduction of these bees, 

 113 of them gave, in a period of 4 months, 4;i,000 lbs. 

 of choice honey, being over :5S0 lbs. per hive, or 

 more than four times the amount ))i'odueed on the 

 old plan. The success of this e.x'periment far e.v- 

 ceeded the most sanguine expectations of the Ca- 

 sano\a brothers, and, being gentlemen of means, 

 thej- at onee set aliout and completed one of the 

 best-appointed modern ajiiaries to be fouiul in .any 

 country; and foi' the benellt of the readers of 

 Gr;EANiNns, we will briefly describe it. 



The apiary and buildings cover nearly three acres 

 of ground, in the form of a rectangle, sloping to 

 the southeast with a descent of 10 feet in a hun- 

 dred. Near the center of this plot are two sheds, 

 each ;iO0 feet long, extending across the plot in jiar- 

 allel lines, east to west, and about ISO feet apart. 

 Opening out from the northernmost of these sheds 

 are 6 others, extending to the north line of the plot 

 in parallel lines 2'i feet apart. At the center of the 

 south one of the two first mentioned i3 another 

 shed extending to the south 00 feet to the extract- 

 ing-room. These sheds are all ft. wide, ft. high at 

 the eaves, iioaked palm-leaf roof about a foot thick. 

 They are high and airy, alftn-ding perfect protection 

 from sun and rain, and are always comfortable, 

 even in the hottest weather. Along both sides of 

 the sheds, just inside of the eave-lines, are the long 

 rows of two-story hives, painted white, !t feet apart, 

 and, of course, facing outwai-d, so that the flight of 

 the bees in no way interferes with the Avorkmon. 

 The ground, all sloping toward the honey-house, 

 makes the wheeling-in of the loads of well-filled 

 combs comparatively easy. The extractor is a 0- 

 frame reversible, made by Aspinwall & Treadwell, 

 of heavy galvanized iron, and delivers the honey 

 through a large pipe on toi) of the center of a broad 

 screen, covering the top of an evaporating-taiik 

 holding 8,);)0 lbs., where the honey is freed from any 

 little pieces of comb, etc., which may have got in liy 

 accident. From the concave bottom of this tank 

 an iron pipe extends down the sloping ground 60 ft. 

 further, to a broad covered shed where the honey is 

 received directly into the bungholes of the tierces 

 by merely turning the large faucet on the end of 

 the pipe. Along the lower side of this barreling 

 shed, and coming close up fo it, is the roadway, 

 which is enough lower than the Hoor of the shed to 

 admit of the rolling of the filled tierces into the 

 carts ready for transportation to the depot. 



It will thus be seen that, from first to last, there 

 is no dipping or lifting of honey recjuired. We 

 might go on to ilescribe the uncapping arrange- 

 ment, with their screen bottoms and troughs lead- 

 ing to the evaporating-tank, and many other useful 

 ajipliances of the large airy extracting-room; but • 

 our " story " is already drawn out beyond the space 

 we supposed necessary to tell it; so wi' will close by 

 saying that every thing is built substantial, ample, 

 and yet simple, and contrasts strongly with some of 

 the little "cluttered iij)" arrangements too often 

 seen in our own country. A. .1. Ktno. 



N. Y. City, N. V., .liily, I88ii. 



Thanks, friend King, for your very valua- 

 ble coniiniinication, cspceially your descrip- 

 tion of tlie Casanova Jipiary. Now, if it is a 

 possible lliiiiK we wanl a i)lioto<fi'apli of this 

 apiary, to show tlie arrangement of tlie 



