1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Stingless Bees of South America. 



In the report of the Southern Califor- 

 nia Bee-Keepers' Association, on page 

 6 of this Journal, mention is made of 



an article from the New York Argus, 

 on the '• Stingless Honey 15ee;" and we 

 have a circular on our desk from Mr. 

 llawley. of Rochester, X. V.. advoca- 

 ting the formation of a " Stingless Bee 

 Association." In it Mr. llawley evi- 

 dently refers to the article in the Argus, 

 as its parent : 



"On the 15th of September last the undersigned 

 published in an Albany newspaper an article on the 

 subject of 'Stingless Bees,' which, so far as I am 

 aware, was the first intimation the bee fraternity of 

 the United States had that there existed anywhere 

 on the habitable globe a species of the honey bee 



that havenO4tftl00rs By accident the writer of 



this was first made acquainted with the fact that this 

 singular species of bees existed ; then by reading 

 history, travels, and persona] inquiry, the fact was 

 demonstrated and proven that the species really 

 existed. 



"Then, by correspondence, these further facts 

 were elicited : That these bees are indigenous to 

 Brazil, south of the equator, inhabiting a climate sim- 

 ilar to that of Italy, and with surroundings very like 

 those of that country ; that, with a single exception 

 (where a French sailor, having some knowledge of 

 bee-culture in France, had for a few years been con- 

 ducting an apiary on a very primitive scale— his hives 

 being cut from the forests with the bees already in, 

 hauled and set them up at his cabin— and, to obtain 

 the honey, he kills the bees and appropriates their 

 stores ; depending upon increasing his colonies by 

 natural swarming), no one in the whole empire paid 

 any attention to the cultivation of bees, and for this 

 reason it would seem necessary, tn order to intro- 

 duce them here, that some competent person make 

 the trip to South America and bring them here." 



Mr. Hawley is rather unfortunate in 

 his statement that the publication of his 

 article " was the first intimation the bee 

 fraternity of the United States had that 

 there existed anywhere on the habitable 

 globe, a species of the honey bee that 

 have no stingers." Evidently he has 

 not read the American Bee Journal, 

 or he might have seen in Vol. I., pages 

 234-5, published twenty years ago, a dis- 

 cussion concerning their utility. At 

 the close of this article, the late Mr. 

 Samuel Wagner, our respected prede- 

 cessor, made the following editorial 

 comment: 



" The Mexican and South American 

 stingless bees might probably be made 

 a source of profit in their native lati- 

 tudes, if their instincts and habits were 

 thoroughly studied and well understood. 

 They are not suited to northern cli- 

 mates, and cannot be preserved here, as 

 mere curiosities, without great care and 

 difficulty.'' 



Page 54 of Vol. II., contains a descrip- 

 tive article on bees and bee-keeping in 

 Brazil. On pages 24, 25 and 26, Vol. 

 IV., is a very interesting article on the 

 habits of the Mexican bees. On page 

 179 of Vol. V we find a description of 

 bees in Yucatan, concluding as follows : 

 " They (the log hives) are well arranged 

 under sheds erected for the purpose- 

 opened monthly and the honey ex- 

 tracted. They do not yield so much 

 honey, or of so good a quality, neither 

 are the bees as lively as those of the 

 north. Their bees have no sting." The 

 following is Mr. Wagner's editorial 

 comment : " These bees are Meliponas, 

 and might perhaps be cultivated in 

 Florida, but all attempts to introduce 

 them in the North have hitherto failed." 



Last year's volume of the Bee Jour- 

 nal contained an article on bee-keeping 

 in Brazil by Mr. Hannemann. It is 

 quite evident, therefore, that Mr. Haw- 

 ley has not been watching the Bee 

 Journal very closely. 



We have no desire to discourage any 

 reasonable attempts to improve the race 

 of bees, but we'think the facts quoted 

 from former volumes of the Bee Jour- 

 nal are due to our readers, who are ap- 



pealed to for subscriptions to the im- 

 porting fund, by Mr. llawley. It cannot 

 do any harm to give all the facts that 

 are known about the stingless races of 

 bees in South America. By all means, 

 let them be imported and tried to the 

 fullest extent. If they are of any value 

 our experienced queen-breeders will 

 very soon ascertain the fact. 



iff We regret to state that Mr. G. M. 

 Doolittle has been very sick for a month 

 past. He is now able to sit up a little. 

 His many friends will be glad to learn 

 of his full recovery. 



1®° Three new bee papers are to be 

 started for 1881— one in Wisconsin, one 

 in California, and one in Louisiana. 



<ff The pinnacle of the dome of the 

 court house at Gainesville, Texas, was 

 last summer taken possession of by a 

 swarm of bees. They still " hold the 

 tort." 



8i° Those who have subscribed for 

 the Monthly or Semi-monthly, and may 

 want to change for the Weekly, can do 

 so at any time by paying the difference. 



g 1 We send this number of the Bee 

 Journal to all our subscribers for the 

 past year— kindly inviting them, by this 

 notice, to subscribe for 1881. 



iff Those who may have heretofore 

 concluded that the Monthly Bee Jour- 

 nal contained too much to be digested 

 at a single meal, may find consolation 

 in the fact that hereafter it is to be given 

 in four installments during each 

 month, and will be more easily digested, 

 and more acceptable in every way. 



iff" To our friends who will spend a 

 few hours in working for the Bee Jour- 

 nal, we have concluded to make the 

 following offers for all clubs sent in be- 

 fore Jan. 31 : For a club of 2, xoeekly,v>e 

 will present a copy of "Bee-Culture;" 

 for a club of 5, weekly, we will give a 

 copy of " Cook's Manual," bound in 

 cloth ; for a club of 6, we give a copy of 

 the Journal for a year free. Do not 

 forget that it will pay to devote a few 

 hours to the Bee Journal. 



iff An old subscriber asks: "If I 

 subscribe for the Monthly, shall I get 

 all the matter contained in the Weekly, 

 in a condensed form '?" No ; subscri- 

 bers for the Monthly will receive the 

 first weekly number (likethis) published 

 on the first Wednesday of each month, 

 and will miss the next three numbers. 

 Semi-monthly subscribers will receive 

 the first and third weekly of each month 

 (missing the second and fourth). Sub- 

 scribers tor the Weekly only will get all 

 the reading matter. We advise all to 

 take the Weekly who are keeping bees ; 

 it will pay them to do so. Any one who 

 has subscribed tor the Monthly or Semi- 

 monthly, can change to the Weekly upon 

 paying the difference. 



0°The Northwestern Illinois and 

 Southwestern Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will meet in the Temper- 

 ance Hall, Freeport, 111., on Tuesday, 

 Jan. 11, 1881. Mr. T. G. Newman, edi- 

 tor of the American Bee Journal, 

 has consented to be present and will 

 deliver a lecture on Progressive Bee 

 Culture. Several other prominent bee- 

 keepers are expected to be present. A 

 general invitation is extended to all in- 

 terested in bee-culture to be present. 

 J. Stewart, Sec. 



GLEAN IN(;s. 



Novice is about to issue "Our Homes" 

 in pamphlet form. 



Doolittle sold his honey this year at 

 from 18 to 22 cents per pound. 



Novice has started a 5-cent lunch 

 counter at the depot in Medina, O. 



A man by the name of King, in Nor- 

 thern Georgia, claims to have a patent 

 on division boards, and threatens to 

 prosecute those who use them. Novice , 

 emphatically, but truthfully, denounces 

 this claim as absurd. There is no pat- 

 ent on division boards ; never w r as, and 

 never can be. 



Chinese Bees. — Mr. C. D. King, a mis- 

 sionary in China, expects to return to 

 America and bring some Chinese bees 

 with him. He describes them thus : 



" These bees in the bottle before me 

 are more slender, and but little longer 

 than the common house-fly, which is so 

 plentiful with you. This latter pest is 

 as scarce here as are the bees them- 

 selves, if not more so. The head and 

 thorax of these bees before me are black. 

 Their waists are a reddish yellow, but 

 the abdominal portion for more than 

 half its length is black, marked with 

 three white stripes across the back, with 

 a slight pencil-mark, apparently meant 

 tor another stripe, near the extremity. 

 On the under side, the yellow predomi- 

 nates, and takes the place of the white, 

 so that they seem to have black stripes 

 across the yellow. Their wings are white 

 and transparent, with a very delicate 

 brown stripe along the outer edges. By 

 looking closely, one can also see a brown 

 net-work traversing the delicate white 

 wing. On the under side, their black 

 heads and thoraxes seem to be covered 

 with a white down or fuzz." 



Bees and Honey in Florida.— W. S. 



Hart remarks : " The honey tlow here, 

 instead of being continuous, is divided 

 into 4 seasons, with 2, 3 or 4 weeks of 

 drought between. The honey here is as 

 smooth as any in the North, and most 

 of it as light-colored ; in fact, our cab- 

 bage palmetto honey, which forms the 

 big crop of the season, is so smooth and 

 so light-colored, that many fear that it 

 will not sell in the North, on accountof 

 consumers thinking it a manufactured 

 article. We have but one crop of dark 

 honey, and that is the last one of the 

 season, and is used to feed back during 

 the next spring. As to the profits here, 

 I fail to see why they should not be far 

 greater than in the North, as we have to 

 go to no expense to winter, and we never 

 lose on account of the cold. The bees 

 increase very fast, and we nere?- have a 

 year without a good crop of honey. We 

 can ship our honey to any of the big 

 markets by water, which is always cheap 

 transportation ; and as we have more 

 good pine growing in Florida than in 

 any other State in the Union, hive lum- 

 ber is cheap." 



BEE-KEEPERS' MAGAZINE. 



Comb Foundation.— Dr. Brown re- 

 marks : " A correspondent desires to 

 know whose foundation is the best. As 

 there are 'many persons of different 

 minds,' it is quite likely that all may be 

 best. I have tried the flat-bottomed, the 

 wired, that with tin base, that made on 

 the Root machine, with only the outline 

 of the side-walls, and that made on the 

 Dunham, with the high side-walls and 

 with sufficient wax around their base to 

 enable the bees to complete the entire 

 cell-wall, and I must say, without a mo- 

 ment's hesitation, that the Dunham has, 

 thus far, proved the most satisfactory. 

 I have not found it to sag ; the bees 

 soon set to work on it and build it out 

 in much less time than the other takes, 

 and consequently it is soon filled with 

 brood. 



" While the Dunham, I believe, is sold 

 for the same price as the other sorts, it 

 is really worth more, from the fact that 



it is more difficult to make. The deep 

 depressions in the rolls of the machine, 

 to impress the high side-walls, make the 

 sheets of wax more difficult to deliver 



from tlic rolls than when made on ma- 

 chines that give the mere septum of the 

 comb and the mere outlines of the base 

 of the cells. 



" By the use of foundation we can al- 

 ways secure straight combs, which is a 

 great desideratum in a huge apiary 

 where it is often necessary to exchange 

 frames with other hives." 



Two Queens in a Hive. — A. II. Fra- 

 denburg says: "I think lean throw a 

 new ray of light on this subject, which 

 is now-a-days attracting some attention 

 among bee-keepers. I have come to the 

 conclusion that there are but just two 

 causes or conditions in which two laying 

 queens will be found in a hive at once — 

 the first is the superseding of an old and 

 failing queen, in which case each queen 

 seems to have a sort of reverence for 

 the other ; the second condition is that 

 the bees in one part of the hive do not 

 know at all times what is going on in 

 another part of the hive. This assertion 

 may raise a storm of opposition among 

 the fraternity, but I believe I have the 

 positive evidence to support it." 



BEE-KEEPERS' EXCHANGE. 



The Future for honey production, says 

 H. A. Burch, " wears a rosy tint, since 

 it is more than probable that all the 

 honey we can raise for years to come, 

 will command good paying figures. 

 Honey at 10 cents per lb. pays the spe- 

 cialist who is favorably located, better 

 than wheat at SI per bushel does the 

 farmer ; and when honey sells readily at 

 IS to 20c. per lb., the relative profit will 

 be obvious to all. Every occupation is 

 invested by many difficulties, which 

 must be met and overcome; that the 

 apiarist is, we feel sure, as free from 

 them as any other calling." 



Referring to D. A. Jones' plan for ob- 

 taining surplus, the editor says: " We 

 have experimented a little in the direc- 

 tion indicated by friend Jones, and can- 

 not therefore think highly of his plan. 

 For in the first place, we do not under- 

 stand in what way the yield is to be 

 greatly increased, and secondly, the 

 perforated zinc or tin will not materially 

 hinder the bees from depositing pollen 

 in the frames or boxes thus placed be- 

 tween the brood. Holes through which 

 the queen cannot pass, greatly retard 

 the passage of the workers, and, if used 

 to keep the queen from leaving with the 

 swarm, the hole covered with perforated 

 material must be from 4 to 6 inches 

 square, or the bees will smother, and in 

 hot weather such an opening will hardly 

 suffice." 



BEE-KEEPERS' INSTRUCTOR. 



Mr. S. D. Riegel has sold the Instruc- 

 tor to W. Thomas & Son, and retires be- 

 cause of other pressing duties. The 

 Salutatory of the new editor is good. 



Imported Queens. — The retiring edi- 

 tor, writing upon the desirability of ob- 

 taining imported queens, says : " If real 

 improvement is desired, why not get a 

 home-bred queen from a reliable breed- 

 er '? one possessing in the highest de- 

 gree those qualities which are so much 

 sought after by our best bee-keepers. 

 I would much rather risk the introduc- 

 tion of a good home-bred queen, pos- 

 sessing the best traits of character, into 

 my apiary, with a view of continued 

 improvement, than an imported one 

 whose traits of character or good quali- 

 ties are not known." 



The National Convention.— The North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Eleventh An- 

 nual Convention, which met at Cincin- 

 nati on the 28th of September, seems to 

 have been of unusual interest. The 

 meeting was well attended by the lead- 

 ing apiarists of the country, and a com- 

 mendable degree of interest was mani- 

 fested by the members of the Associa- 

 tion. Everything passed off with zeal 

 and harmony, and much was done that 

 is calculated to encourage bee-keepers 

 all over the land to move forward with 

 greater confidence in the work in which 

 they are engaged. 



