March, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



147 



locality would be very difficult. Providence 

 was so liiiid and nature so lavish that a bot- 

 anist would despair in trying to list and 

 classify and find correct names for all of 

 the nectar-secreting plants. I have been here 

 three years, and each year our main honey 

 crop came from a different source. Almonds, 

 citrus fruits, a number of varieties of 

 plums, tarmarinds, aguacates, coeoanuts 

 and many other varieties of palms, cot- 

 ton, mesquite, catclaw, and many vine 

 plants, both wild and ornamental, a 

 great variety of tropical fruits, as well as 

 nearly all the lumber woods, cedar, mahog- 

 any, cocobolas, mora, genisaro, espavel. 

 balsa, and many others, also varieties of 

 mint, sage, goldenrod, and wild sunflowers 

 all produce honey. I have planted buck- 

 wheat and Eussian sunflowers in the rainy 

 season, and the bees worked busily on both. 

 To pluck a flower from a tree or vine seldom 

 causes it to stop secreting nectar. I have 

 often noticed bees busily at work on the 

 fallen flowers on the ground under a tree: 



secured (juite a little surplus in July from 

 wild sunflower. 



Critical Period for Bees. 



October is the most critical time for the 

 beekeeper in w^estern Costa Rica. The bees 

 then usually begin to rear brood heavily. 

 Just before the dry season a wet spell sets 

 in that lasts from 30 to 60 days, and very 

 seldom do the bees get a flight of more than 

 an hour. In this kind of weather they can 

 gather neither honey nor pollen, and we 

 have practiced feeding to great advantage 

 the past two years during October. We have 

 fed both white and dark brown sugar by 

 making it into a thin syrup and pouring 

 this into empty combs. The bees seemingly 

 take one as readily as the other. I am satis- 

 Ked that we materiallj^ increase our honey 

 crop thru feeding at this time. 



Many Varieties of Native Bess. 



There are many kinds of native bees in 

 this locality, both the stinging and stingless 

 varieties. Some build wax combs; others, 

 half wax and part woody fiber; still others 



Hauliiia; (li-uins ( ivnii casks) of honey on ox mits to a l.oat landing- in Cosla Rica. 



and just the other day a young lady pinned 

 some orange blossoms on, and some time 

 afterwards two bees came and seemingly 

 got honey out of the blossoms. 



There are five or six varieties of man- 

 grove, some of which bloom for six months, 

 and the bees get considerable honey from 

 them at times. Some times of the year there 

 seems to be a dearth of pollen, and we have 

 planted corn and katfir corn to produce pol- 

 len at these periods. 



Our honey flow begins with the dry sea- 

 son, and we seldom have a shower of rain 

 for six months or over. This gives us ideal 

 extracting weather. With the first rain in 

 April or May the flow decreases, and the 

 honey gets slightly thinner and darker in 

 color, and after the first of June the bees 

 usually find only enough honey for their 

 own use. Last year was an exception, as we 



build all fiber nests, something like a was])'s 

 or hornet's nest; some have a nest full of 

 little wax cells or capsules like birds ' eggs 

 filled with honey. In size these bees also 

 vary greatly, some being tiny little things, 

 while other kinds are larger than the Euro- 

 pean bee. The honey of one very small kind 

 called maria seco by the Costa Ricans is 

 sold and highly esteemed for medicinal pur- 

 poses. 



Some of the larger stingless varieties 

 gather as much as 12 or 15 pounds per col- 

 ony in a season. The method practiced in 

 securing the honey is very crude. Usually 

 a, man twists and jams an old stick or iron 

 hook around in the log gum from one end, 

 catching the honey, wax, and brood in a 

 gourd as they drop from the hive. When the 

 honey is cl(>an it often has a very fine dis- 

 tinct flavor, some of it tasting as if it were 



