Decembkr, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE 



723 



An apiarv and lioiun -liuuse in Portu Uit-o's hill cm 



point of, day to the low point of night, 

 thus causing the bees to leave the supers 

 when it grows cool. Last, most tropical hon- 

 eys are not so well ripened as those gath- 

 ered in the North, and unless the sections 

 are entirely capped, they are likely to leak 

 by the time they arrive in New York City. 

 The humidity is high on the Island, and the 

 transportation to market by water adds to 

 its quota of moisture. For this reason I may 

 say, all honey produced here is extracted 

 and run into fifty-gallon barrels for ship- 

 ment. Little or no honey is put into the five- 

 gallon tin containers, on account of the ex- 

 tra cost of cans and a much higher rate for 

 steamship freight. Most of our honey is used 

 by baking companies or shipped to Europe. 

 The larger container not only has the call, 

 but seems to be the best for our purpose. 

 Sales of honey for local consumption do not 

 amount to one per cent of the annual crop. 



For the past year, the cost of making de- 

 livery of honey to New York City from a 

 coast town was 18 cents per gallon. The 

 container costs lli/^ cents per gallon. 



Freight from Aibonito to the coast is five 

 cents per gallon, making a total of 34*4 

 cents per gallon. The average price received 

 for honey sold in Porto Rico in 1919 was 

 about $1.15 per gallon. This low price was 

 occasioned by export conditions and foreign 

 exchange. 



Little Swarming. 



The lack of swarming has been a constant 

 source of wonderment to me, and one I can- 

 not reason out. Our hot tropical sun, slow 

 long-drawn-out honey flows, should spell all 

 kinds of swarming, yet I do not believe ten 

 per cent of the bees on the Island swarm. 

 Apiary Owners and Employees. 



The men employt-d in the apiaries are usu- 



ally peons, who are the more ignorant of 

 the population. The better classes do no 

 manual labor. Naturally, the peons speak 

 nothing but the Spanish language. Like the 

 rest of the world at present, the laboring 

 man is in a state of unrest, and is a growing 

 source of trouble. There are but few of the 

 peons who can be depended upon. Yet we 

 must place responsibility on them. If the 

 employer owns several apiaries in different 

 localities, very frequent inspection tj-ips 

 make the expenses prohibitive, on account 

 of poor communication between points across 

 the Island. It is necessary, as a rule, to fol- 

 low the coast, and for this autos are used. 

 At this date, the cost of peon labor ranges 

 from 90 cents to $1.50 per day. Usually a 

 home is provided free for the laborer and his 

 family, in addition to his salary. 



About 60 per cent of the bees here are 

 owned by men or firms, who know little or 

 nothing of honey, bees, or beekeeping. The 

 others are owned by professional beekeepers 

 who receive their entire income from bees, 

 and by owners of coffee or citrus-fruit plan- 

 tations, who have the bees for pollination 

 as well as the honey they yield. 

 Modem Hives. 



The United States Experimental Station 

 at Mayaguez, Porto Rico, fathered modern 

 beekeeping here. With this example, the new 

 beekeepers followed the same methods used 

 at the Station. Practically 98 per cent of 

 the bees here are in eiglit and ten frame 

 dovetailed hives. The remaining two per 

 cent are in anything. I am sorry to say the 

 two per cent is being added to rapidly by 

 the peon class, and is likely to prove a detri- 

 ment to the larger beekeeper. 



Number of Colonies and Strain of Bees. 



I peisunally know of over 10,000 colonies 



