426 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



inches by about fifteen deep. I was congrat- 

 ulating myself upon my successful work on 

 the comb, when, without any slipping of the 

 cloth, the greater portion of it went crash on 

 the ground below, and was made into jam. I 

 lowered the rest carefully, and found that I 

 had enough sealed brood to fill the depth of 

 one section ( L. frame), and nearly its length 

 and nearly half of another. I also gathered 

 up scraps enough of the broken lot to fill a 

 third, and then I placed in the corners of the 

 hive considerable material that Italians would 

 work over. I put in only three frames, so as 

 to give them all the air-space they would need. 

 Thus I left them. If the queen is with the 

 hive party, there is a chance of their remain- 

 ing. This is the story up to date. I got the 

 alcohol, but it is nearly train time. 

 Damoh, C. P., India. 



[The following is the extract referred to :] 



EXTRACT FROM DR. WATTS' DICTIONARY OF 



THE ECONOMIC PRODUCTS OF INDIA. 

 Group I. — Apis dorsata. 



Description. — The bees of this group differ 

 from Apis mellifica in being larger ; in build- 

 ing A% cells to the inch ; in the shape of the 

 abdomen ; in having 13 rows of bristles form- 

 ing the pollen-basket ; in the relative positions 

 of the eyes and ocelli, and in a very slightly 

 different arrangement of nervures of the ante- 

 rior wings. It would seem that this bee does 

 not build larger cells for drones than for work- 

 ers, and that the drone is similar in shape and 

 size to the worker, differing principally in the 

 head, which resembles the head of the drone 

 of A. mellifica. It builds one large comb, 3 to 

 5 feet long, 2 or more deep. The brood-comb 

 is 1 % inches thick, and the store-comb much 

 thicker. Although both A. dorsata and A. 

 florea are normally single-comb bees, under 

 exceptionally favorable circumstances they 

 build a second comb and their single combs 

 are built much larger than otherwise usual ; 

 e. g., A. dorsata building in rock cavities; 

 and a comb of A. florea built in a dwelling- 

 house was found to be about 5 feet in area, in 

 addition to being in some places double, the 

 comb of this bee being usually single, and per- 

 haps less than one foot in area. Probably in 

 all these very large nests there are several 

 queens, and they are not comparable to single 

 stocks of A. mellifica. The arrangement of 

 the stores and brood is the same as in other 

 species. A. dorsata, as found in India, is ex- 

 ceedingly constant in s'ze and color. It is 

 found in forests, but frequently builds in 

 town. It is reputed to be very vicious ; but 

 unless disturbed it does not attack, and could 

 be handled by some of the measures usually 

 employed by bee-keepers. 



Habitat. — Apis dorsata is found all over In- 

 dia, but not at great heights above sea level. 

 It is said to be found at 2000 feet or more in 

 Bhutan, but may justly be termed a tropical 

 insect indigenous to the plains. 



Economic information. — The large size of 

 the comb and bee has excited hopes of this in- 

 sect proving, under cultivation, of great eco- 

 nomic value, and European bee-keepers have 



endeavored to obtain stocks of it. Mr. Ben- 

 ton, a dealer in foreign bees, went to Ceylon 

 for the purpose ; but he was unfortunate in 

 his efforts, for the queens died. He states he 

 does not consider them so vicious as reputed, 

 when once hived, but he gave up the attempt 

 to cultivate the species. Several years previ- 

 ously, the writer undertook to obtain stocks, 

 if likely to prove useful in Europe, but did not 

 hive any, as it was considered better first to 

 investigate the economic value of other Indian 

 species. The reasons against any attempt to 

 cultivate A. dorsata in hives are : 1. It builds 

 naturally in the open ; 2. It builds normally 

 only one comb, so that the honey can not be 

 removed without removing the brood also ; 3. 

 Although it builds a very large comb, this one 

 comb is not so great in cubic capacity, nor- 

 mally, as the combs built by a stock of Apis 

 mellifica, which is readily cultivated and well 

 understood already ; 4. It is found only in a 

 tropical climate, and in this respect differs 

 from A. mellifica and A. Indica, the most 

 productive varieties of which are apparently 

 indigenous to localities having more or less 

 severe winters. A. dorsata probably might be 

 cultivated in a semi-wild state in the forests, 

 and the produce largely increased by this 

 means. The present practice of indiscrimi- 

 nately robbing every stock found of all its 

 comb, stores, an i brood, might be replaced by 

 a more rational mode of procedure ; for, al- 

 though not hived, many of the processes ap- 

 plied in the economic management of A . mel- 

 lifica might be applied to the semi-wild A. 

 dorsata. The bees might be fed to stimulate 

 breeding or to prevent starvation. Excessive 

 swarming might be interfered with. Certain 

 stocks might be selected to breed from, as in 

 the old stvle of bee-keeping. It might be 

 found practicable to remove only portions of 

 the comb, and the bees might be induced to 

 build on or in artificial structures more acces- 

 sible than the branches of trees. 



Large quantities of both wax and honey are 

 taken in the forests from A. dorsata. This 

 wax appears to be bought by dealers, and 

 some is exported. The honey is sold and 

 mostly consumed locally, but is commonly of 

 very inferior quality, being contaminated with 

 pollen, the juices of larvte, etc. It is also 

 commonly thin, and liable to fermentation. 

 The use of a simple extractor, care being taken 

 to ripen when necessary, and to grade it in- 

 stead of mixing good and bad together — these 

 and other simple improvements would greatly 

 increase the value of the honey. It appears 

 highly probable that most of the honey pro- 

 duced by bees building in open air is thin, and 

 requires ripening by evaporation to remove its 

 liability to fermentation. Out of fiO to 70 

 specimens smt to the Calcutta exhibition, very 

 few were free from fermentation. 



[Our readers will remember that Mr. W. E. 

 Rambo, a missionary from India, visited us a 

 year or so ago. Knowing that he must be in 

 the region where these giant bees live, and as 

 there was considerable objection at that time 

 against urging the government to import these 

 bees, I asked Mr. Rambo if he did not think 



