■10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



BEE-KEEPING IN HAWAII. 



We have had a pleasant call from Mr. \Vm. 

 Thompson, of Honolulu, H. I. Mr. T., al- 

 though connected with the " Kamehameha " 

 school, and instructor in the department of 

 sciences, is the owner and manager of some 

 •500 colonies of bees, all in one apiary. Two 

 things I could not understand. 1. How he 

 could manage to teach every day, and run so 

 large an apiary; 2. How it was possible for him 

 to keep so many colonies in one apiar3\ As 

 to the first, he is obliged to employ help ; 

 and, moreover, the heaviest part of the bee- 

 work comes when school work is the lightest. 

 As to the second, he told me that he presum- 

 ed he had too many, but that many more col- 

 onies could be supported on a given location 

 in Hawaii than in many portions of the Unit- 

 ed States. Bee-keeping was confined to a 

 narrow belt of land along the coast, and a 

 company had been formed to buy up all the 

 colonies in that region, the osten.sible purpose 

 being to "make a corner " on the honey mar- 

 ket there, and at the same time secure all 

 available desirable bee-pasturage, for it seems 

 that that is quite limited. The area which 

 the company is trying to secure control of will 

 probably support onh' about ;^>000 colonies. 

 They have not pulled Mr. Thompson into the 

 "combine" yet, and it is unlikely that they 

 will succeed in doing so. 



Our friend says that bees can be kept in- 

 land, or up in the mountains, but the honey is 

 dark and of poor quality. That which is pro- 

 duced in the area along the line of the coast 

 is of very' fine quality, if I can judge from the 

 taste of a mere sample which he gave me. 



We have sent him queens a number of times 

 bj' mail, and I believe that in all cases they 

 have gone through alive ; but imagine my sur- 

 prise when he said that the bees, even from 

 these queens, grow to .be so large in the salu- 

 brious climate of the Hawaiian Islands that 

 they can not go through ordinary perforated 

 zinc. I had asked him if they used perforated 

 zinc, and he said he had tried it, but had had 

 to give it vip, as the bees could not get through 

 it when filled with honey ; and then when I 

 suggested that the bees from our queens sure- 

 ly could, he shook his head. 



The honey that is produced in Hawaii is all 

 extracted, and is sold in the London markets. 

 The beeswax, also quite an item, instead of 

 being a bright yellow as it is in this countr}-, 

 is white — so white, indeed, that its purity has 

 been suspected in London ; but when it is re- 

 membered that this wax comes from the solar 

 wax-extractor, and that said extractors are un- 

 der a tropical sun, it is not to be much won- 

 dered at that the product should be thorough- 

 ly bleached. 



Mr. Thompson gave me an interesting ac- 

 count of the situation in Hawaii, and of the 

 struggles of the little republic under our pre- 

 vious and present administrations ; of the 

 wisdom and magnanimity displayed by Presi- 

 dent Dole, under trying circumstances. Of 

 course, friend Thompson was heartily in favor 

 of annexation, and he hoped that our Ameri- 

 can Congress would make the little republic a 

 part of us. 



the buffai^o-convention picture. 



After one of the sessions, somewhere about 

 four o'clock, the bee-keepers assembled in the 

 convention room at Buffalo were requested to 

 adjourn to a raised platform in front of the 

 building, and near one of the triumphal arches 

 through which the G. A. R. veterans marched. 

 The bee-keepers were requested to take their 

 seats upon the reviewing-stand, while the art- 

 ist took two shots ; but as it was a little late 

 he made a little too much allowance for the 

 light, and "overtimed" the pictures so that 

 they were too flat or too something ; but on 

 the morning of the same day, I think, the 

 same artist took a view of a large number of 

 the bee-keepers who attended the convention 

 that was good. This picture was taken in 

 front of the lodging-house where many of us 

 were stopping ; and the result in half-tone is 

 reproduced on another page. This view, while 

 it shows only a small portion of the conven- 

 tion members, takes in a list of many of the 

 most prominent bee-keepers of the countr3^ I 

 regret that I am not able to give you the name 

 of each one of the faces there shown, and I 

 can remember only a few of the more promi- 

 nent ones. 



Beginning at the extreme left, the bald- 

 headed gentleman with full-face, white tie, 

 and side whiskers, light coat, arms folded, ap- 

 parently leaning on the steps railing, is Mr. 

 Wm. Couse, a gentleman who has long been 

 secretary of the Ontario Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion. He is one of the leading bee-keepers of 

 Canada. 



The gentleman just in front of him with 

 arms also folded is Mr. S. A. Niver, or, as he 

 modesth' styles himself, "Morton's brother- 

 in-law." Mr. N. has had much experience in 

 selling honey and other articles directly to 

 consumers. Possessed with a good stock of 

 humor and with a "tongue balanced in the 

 middle," he can sell hone}- like hot cakes. 



The next face that I recognize, and just at 

 the left of I\Ir. Couse, and a little higher up on 

 the steps, with his hands folded in front of 

 him, is Mr. E. T. Abbott, editor of the Busy 

 Bee, a sprightly publication published at St. 

 Joseph, Mo. Mr. Abbott, as I have before 

 stated, is employed by his State to lecture on 

 rural subjects during the winter. I never 

 heard one of these lectures, but I have seen 

 some of those who have, and they pronounce 

 them as full of life and interest. His hen 

 story, it is said, fairly captivates his audiences. 



Mr. A. is always prominent at conventions, is 

 an eloquent and earnest speaker. Very often 

 independent in his views he saj-s just what he 

 thinks. If the "other fellow" does not like 

 his style — well, he does not lose any sleep 

 over it. While he may not be given to hon- 

 eyed words he has a kindly heart and sympa- 

 thetic nature. 



At Mr. Abbott's left, and just in front of 

 ■ one of the pillars, is Mr. David Coggshall, 

 who, I believe, owns an apiary of some 500 or 

 600 colonies of bees. Like his brother, W. L., 

 he lives in a beautiful residence — one that 

 would compare favorably with some of the 

 dwellings on the fashionable streets of our 

 cities. Both of the Coggshalls are bright keen 



