(JdT ^ OLDEST BEE PAPEI 

 ^ IN AMERICA 



ESTABLISHED ^\/ 

 IN 1861 



DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JANUARY 12, 1881. 



No. 2. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



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London Journal of Hort. 



Bees in Borneo and Timor. 



A DEVON BEE-KEEPER. 



Having recently perused Mr. Spencer 

 St. John's very interesting work on 

 Borneo, published in 1862, under the 

 title of •'Lite in the Forests of the Far 

 East," I have made notes of several 

 passages relating to the apian aborigines 

 of that magnificent tropical island : — 



Speaking of the agricultural pursuits 

 of the " Sea Dayaks," Mr. St. John says 

 — " They obtain beeswax from the nests 

 built on the tapang tree, and climb the 

 loftiest heights in search of it, upon 

 small sticks which they drive in as they 

 advance up the noble stem that rises 

 above one hundred feet free of branches, 

 and wuose girth varies from fifteen to 

 twenty-five feet. Once these pegs are 

 driven in, their outer ends are connected 

 by a stout rattan, which, with the tree, 

 forms a kind of ladder. It requires cool 

 and deliberate courage to take a bee- 

 hive at so great an elevation, where, in 

 case of being attacked by the bees, the 

 almost naked man would fall and be 

 dashed to atoms. They depend upon 

 the flambeaux they carry up with them, 

 as, when the man disturbs the hive, the 

 sparks falling from it cause, it is said, 

 the bees to fly down in chase of them 

 instead of attacking their real enemy, 

 who then takes the hive and lowers it 

 down by a rattan string. The bees es- 

 cape unhurt. This plan does not pp- 

 pear to be as safe as that pursued by the 

 Pakatan Dayaks. who kindle a large 

 lire under the trees, and, throwing 

 green branches upon it, raise so stifling 

 a smoke that the bees rush forth, and 

 the man ascending takes their nest in 

 safety. Both these operations are gen- 

 erally conducted at night, although 

 the second might be, 1 imagine, 

 practiced in safety during the day." 



With regard to'the "Land Dayaks" 

 it is stated that, "To the left of the 

 Sirambau are some very line tapang 

 trees, in which the bees generally build 

 their nests; they are considered private 

 property, and a Dayak from a neighbor- 



ing tribe venturing to help himself to 

 some of this apparently wild honey and 

 wax would be punished for theft." 

 This is the first hint that is given of 

 bees being considered in any respect as 

 private property, but the following pas- 

 sage would seem to indicate that the 

 domestication of the honey-bee is not 

 altogether unknown in the island : — 

 "During the night, our rest was much 

 disturbed by bees, which stung us sev- 

 eral times, and Mr. Lowe, with that 

 ac'uteness which never deserts him in all 

 questions of natural history, pronounced 

 them to be the ' tame ' bees, the same 

 as he had last seen thirteen years ago 

 among the Sen ah Dayaks, in Sarawak. 

 About midnight we were visited by a 

 big fellow, who, our guides assured us. 

 wanted to pilfer; but we found next 

 morning that he had come to complain 

 of his hives having been plundered. On 

 i nquiry, we discovered the man who had 

 done the deed. He was tined three 

 times the value of the damage, and the 

 amount handed over to the owner." 



In a subsequent part of his journal of 

 the same expedition, our author says — 

 " I never was in such a country for bees, 

 they everywhere swarm in the most 

 disagreeable manner, and ants and 

 other insects are equally numerous." 

 When on their return and nearly 

 starved, the party had " a very happy 

 find, for while passing under a fine ta- 



doubt that these are the bees referred 

 to by Mr. St. John. <\ On examination I 

 found them half as long again as Apis 

 mellifica, and their brood comb propor- 

 tionably thicker. They were in fact, a 

 variety of the magnificent Apisdorsata, 

 which is described as flourishing abun- 

 dantly throughout the great Indian pen- 

 insula, from CapeComorin to the Hima- 

 layas, as well as in Ceylon. 'i 



Mr. Darwin subsequently introduced 

 me to Mr. Wallace, to whom I am in- 

 debted for the following particulars :— 

 " In Borneo and Timor the wax forms 

 an important article of commerce. The 

 combs hang on the under side of hori- 

 zontal limbs of lofty trees, often one 

 hundred feet from the ground. I have 

 seen three together as above, and they 

 are often four feet in diameter. The 

 natives of Timor I have seen take them. 

 They climb up a tree carrying a smoke 

 torch made of a split creeper bound up 

 in palm leaves, and hanging by a rope 

 from their waist. They cover up their 

 body and hair carefully, but their arms 

 and'legs are bare. The smoke directed 

 on the comb makes the bees fly off in a 

 cloud as the man approaches. He 

 sweeps off the remainder with his hand 

 and then cuts off the comb with a large 

 knife, and lets it down to his compan- 

 ions below by a thin cord. He is all the 

 time surrounded by a cloud of bees, and 

 though the smoke no doubt partly 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Last Honey Season in California. 



HOLMES & SCOTT. 



Manner in which Bees in Borneo and Timor build their combs. 



pang tree we noticed the remains of a 

 bees' nest scattered about, and every 

 particle was eagerly appropriated. 

 From the marks around it appeared as 

 if a bear had climbed this lofty tree and 

 torn down the nest to be devoured by 

 its young below, as there were numer- 

 ous tracks of the smaller animals 

 around, but whether the comb had been 

 sucked by the bears or not was very im- 

 material to our men, who rejoiced in 

 securing the little honey still clinging to 

 it." 



That wild bees are exceedingly abund- 

 ant in the forests and jungles of Borneo 

 may be inferred from the foregoing pas- 

 sages as well as from the numerous 

 references to parties of native " wax- 

 hunters," which occur in almost every 

 chapter of the work. Although no clue 

 is given by Mr. St. John to the identity 

 of the Borneon honey-bee, or any in- 

 formation as to the manner in which it 

 builds its nest, I am enabled in some 

 measure to supply the deficiency from 

 other sources. 



Some half dozen years ago T received 

 from Mr. Charles Darwin, the distin- 

 guished naturalist, a few specimens of 

 bees named Apis testacea (Smith), to- 

 gether with two pieces of their comb. 

 Although these had been brought by 

 Mr. Alfred B. Wallace, the celebrated 

 traveler and author of "The Malay 

 Archipelago," just published, from the 

 island of Timor in the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago. I believe, them to be the same as 

 those which are indigenous in Borneo, 

 so that there appears little reason to 



stupefies them, he must be severely 

 stung. While looking on from a con- 

 siderable distance a few came down and 

 attacked me, and I did not get rid of 

 them till I was half a mile from the 

 place and had caught them all, one by 

 one, in my insect net. The sting is very 

 severe. I should imagine that in Timor 

 the dry season answers to our winter, as 

 the drought is very severe and much of 

 the foliage is deciduous. Eucalypti are 

 the most common trees, and their flow- 

 ers I suspect supply the bees with their 

 honey. In Borneo combs are placed in 

 a somewhat similar manner, perhaps 

 formed by the same species. The only 

 bee I have seen domesticated in the 

 East is one at Malacca ; the natives hang 

 up bamboos and hollow logs for it, but 

 it is, I believe, not a true Apis, as it 

 makes clusters of large oval shells of 

 black wax." 



I may add that the Timor bee was 

 named Apis testacea on account of its 

 color, which is very light, and is. in fact, 

 the only point in which it differs from 

 Apis dorsata. When some years ago I 

 compared the specimens in the British 

 Museum, I became impressed with the 

 idea that those which represented Apis 

 testacea were nothing more than newly- 

 hatched, immature specimens of Apis 

 dorsata, and so strongly did I urge my 

 views upon Mr. Smith, that I believe I 

 almost induced him to doubt the cor- 

 rectness of his own nomenclature, until 

 he was afterwards assured by Mr. Wal- 

 lace himself, that they were really 

 mature and fully-developed adult bees. 



As we see a great many individual 

 reports from bee-keepers in the eastern 

 States, we thought a report from this 

 locality might interest some of your 

 readers. 



The season of 1879 was a complete 

 failure and left us with 75 colonies in 

 the fall, which the cold winter following 

 reduced to about 54. We then bought 

 6 weak colonies, together with a lot of 

 hives of the same pattern as our own. 

 We increased these 60 colonies to about 

 100, and extracted about 7,000 lbs. of 

 honey. This result was not as good as 

 we expected, and not as good as we had 

 a right to expect from the amount of 

 rainfall we had last winter, which gave 

 such bounteous crops of everything 

 else. Our first general extracting, early 

 in May. gave us about 2.000 lbs., from 

 about 75 colonies ; the. remainder being 

 nuclei too weak to extract from. Our 

 next week's extracting was only 1,200 

 lbs., and the next 600 lbs.; then we 

 skipped a week and onlv extracted 

 about 700 lbs.; next we skipped two 

 weeks and got about the same. 



Now for the reason, or our theory of 

 it. About the time of our first extract- 

 ing we had an intense hot wind, lasting 

 several days, and after that we had fogs 

 and such cool weather that honey did 

 not flow much. The whole mountain 

 side was one seaof flowers and ourbees, 

 though very strong and working as well 

 as bees ever worked, could not fill up 

 the hives as they did two years before, 

 when we took from our strongest colo- 

 nies 40 to 50 lbs. of honey per week for 

 several weeks in succession. 



Our colonies are now in splendid con- 

 dition for winter, and our onlyprepara- 

 tion for keeping them over is to close 

 the entrances to about two inches, shut 

 up the ventilators, put stones on the 

 covers to keep the wind from blowing 

 them off. and if they have honey enough 

 they are all right. In this we have you 

 eastern bee-keepers at a disadvantage. 



Now. Mr. Editor, if this is too long, 

 boil it down ; if good for nothing do not 

 publish it— but send us your valuable 

 Journal another year, because we like 

 it very much. 



Los Angeles, Cal., Dec. 21, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bees Deserting Winter-Quarters. 



E. A. MORGAN. 



I notice on page 3 of Bee Journal 

 for 1881. Mr. D. S. Kelley asks why his 

 bees desert their hives at this season of 

 the year. Having had a similar experi- 

 ence two years ago, 1 traced the cause 

 to disturbance after cold weather had 

 set in. Some colonies will rouse up 

 even though disturbed very little and 

 buzz and heat up the whole interior of 

 the hive, causing a damp sweal to set- 

 tle on the combs; t lie bees gorge them- 

 selves also, and if the weather con- 

 tinues cold and they have no flvfor!5 

 or 20 days thereafter, they will come 

 out just as he describes ; but if they 

 have a good flv soon after it sets them 

 right again. I never knew a colony to 

 live, where once aroused to such a pitch 

 in cold weather that this sweat takes 

 place; I think it also changes the 

 nature of the honey somewhat. 



