J^tr- 



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



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., APRIL 6, 1881. 



No. 14. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



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Interesting Letter from Singapore. 



The following letter from Mr. Benton, 

 from Singapore, will be read with inter- 

 est. That city is a great seaport near 

 the Islands of Borneo and Java. Mr. 

 Benton's search after those large bees 

 — Apis dorsata — is a herculean task, 

 and his trip thither will be well worth 

 a place in history. Here is the letter : 



Friend Jones : When in Ceylon I 

 plunged intd the jungles, first in this di- 

 rection and then in that, and followed 

 out every clue that I could obtain ; yet 

 although on every side I was told there 

 existed " a large bee,'' which the natives 

 call bambera, it was not until just before 

 I came away that I ascertained any- 

 thing reliable regarding the habits and 

 whereabouts of this wonderful insect, 

 which I feel safe in saying is the long 

 talked of Apis dorsata itself ; though 

 it was too late for me to get to the 

 places where I could see this bee and 

 still reach this steamer. As I return to 

 Ceylon, and am likely to see Apis dor- 

 sata elsewhere also, I comforted my- 

 self regarding the disappointment ex- 

 perienced at not seeing this bambera be- 

 fore my re-embarkation. 



I will speak in the order of their size, 

 of the bees found in Ceylon, giving the 

 Cingalese names used there. 



Aana Mee Meso belongs to the Trigo- 

 nes, and therefore is not a true honey 

 bee, although it gathers pollen and 

 some honey, and lives in swarms with a 

 queen. In a jungle a few miles from 

 Kaltura, on the southwest coast of Cey- 

 lon, I found a small bee which con- 

 tained a nest of these minute, stingless 

 bees. A tube about :i { of an inch in di- 

 ameter and a foot long, composed of 

 propolis and particles of wood, hung 

 from the hole of the tree, and through 

 this tube all the bees entered. It seems 

 this is a means of keeping out larger 

 insects. The tree was cut and the nest 



secured. The cells are built in irregu- 

 lar bunches like those made by com- 

 mon bumble bees. Those cells contain- 

 ing brood were about the size of a grain 

 of rice, while the honey and pollen cells 

 were as large as the smaller cells made 

 by bumble bees. The workers are 

 somewhat less than 3-1(1 of an inch 

 long, (about 5-32) have large heads, and 

 very small abdomens, the latter seem- 

 ing'blunt, and abbreviated, so to speak. 

 These bees fly swiftly, and look odd 

 enough as they come in loaded with mi- 

 nute pellets of pollen, which is packed 

 on their hind legs as witli other bees. 

 They are black. 



The queen is large, her abdomen be- 

 ing so great as to dwarf in appearance 

 all other parts of her body, and so dis- 

 able her as far as flying and rapid move- 

 ments are concerned. Of course there 

 can be no practical value in these bees, 

 but I tucked the nest in a box about G 

 inches square and 2 deep, or rather a 

 part of the brood and honey ,and brought 

 the swarm along. They have been fix- 

 ing up their new home quite bravely. 

 • Daudual-Meso is a small bee which I 

 have not seen, but which I do not be- 

 lieve is likely to prove valuable, since it 

 is so small. Its comb is composed of 

 regular hexagonal wax cells, like all 

 comb of Apis, but there are HI cells to 

 the square inch. I have in my posses- 

 sion a small piece. 



Mee Meso are the Cingalese words 

 signifying " honey bee,,' and this is the 

 bee from which, aside from bambera, 

 most of the honey and wax come. 



Bambera, all accounts agree, exists 

 plentifully in the jungles of Ceylon, but 

 I found just before I came away, only 

 rarely near the seashore, I failed to find 

 it within 10 miles of the coast. I was 

 glad to get accounts from persons who 

 have seen these bees and their trees, 

 and have measured the lengths of their 

 combs ; observing gentlemen, too, 

 whose word can be relied upon. They 

 say these.bees, which I feel sure are of 

 the species Apis dorsata, attach their 

 combs to the branches of trees, usually 

 some lofty trees of the primitive forest, 

 and a gentleman who has often seen 

 them, says they build combs 8 feet long. 

 Another once measured a comb which 

 he found to be 6 feet long. The first 

 mentioned gentleman says he has seen 

 30' natives with earthen pots each re- 

 ceive a load from one bambera bee tree, 

 and has seen a swarm of these bees 

 nearly a half mile long. When I vis- 

 ited the Government Museum in order 

 to obtain information as to whether they 

 knew anything of these bees and where 

 they were to be found, the natives hav- 

 ing only succeeded in finding deborah, 

 (a large hornet) with its nest, for me. I 

 was at once taken by one of the direct- 

 ors to this gentleman, as the one from 

 whom the most information could be 

 obtained. 



The Cyprian and Palestine bees I have 

 with me are doing finely. Those left in 

 Ceylon will serve to introduce the spe- 

 cies A. melifica, and will establish in 

 that wonderf unproductive Island an in- 

 dustry that I feel sure will thrive there 

 and be a source of revenue to the in- 

 habitants and the government. 



Upon my return I have formed the 

 plan of taking with me for introduction 

 to Cyprus a lot of cocoanut palm trees, 

 some mango and bread-fruit seeds or 

 trees, and a species of paw-paw found 

 in Ceylon. As the date-palm, the or- 



ange, the lemon, the fig, the banana and 

 the pomegranate are already growing in 

 Cyprus, I believe these new fruits will 

 thrive and find favor. Financially, of 

 course, it is an experiment, yet I believe 

 it promises well ; at any rate it will not 

 cost much to try it. 



Except this paw-paw, I failed to find 

 any fruit or grain that is likely to thrive 

 in as cold a climate as the central parts 

 of North America. Cinnamon, coffee, 

 tea, betel nuts, precious stones and co- 

 coanuts and oil are, with cinchona bark, 

 the' principal exports of Ceylon. I 

 talked witli various exporters, but all 

 had their agents in N. 1 . and Canada, 

 and desired no change. None of them 

 would sell, of course, direct to the firm, 

 when possessing an agent in America. 



Upon my return I will see what 

 further can be ascertained as to " out- 

 of-the-way products." Itis hard to get 

 any prices, and would in most instances 

 be difficult to obtain a quantity worth 

 while to ship. 



From Arabia, coffee, gums, perfumes 

 and pearls come. At Aden I was told 

 that the best Mocha coffee could be got 

 for one shilling (or 24 cts.) per lb. In 

 large quantities I think it can be got 

 still cheaper. I should think precious 

 stones (sapphire, jasper, &c.,)gums,cof- 

 fee, cocoanut oil,cinnamon oil and pearl 

 would pay best, perhaps also ivory and 

 ostrich feathers. At Aden I found 

 some large wheat,but kinds were mixed, 

 or else the variety is not a fixed sort. 

 This portion of the world produces lit- 

 tle or no grain besides rice. 



I have obtained seeds of a number of 

 flowering plants and trees, some of 

 which I know yield honey, and others 

 that look as though they might were 

 there bees to gather it. We expect to 

 reach Singapore to-morrow forenoon. I 

 will take the first steamer for Batavia, 

 which will likely leave in a day or so. 

 Frank Benton. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Cause of Bee Cholera or Dysentery. 



G. 31. DOOLITTLE. 



I have noticed in several articles a 

 statement quite similar to this, which 

 is taken from Mr. James Heddon's arti- 

 cle in the February number of the Bee- 

 Keepers'' Instructor : " Every bee-keeper 

 of experience who lives in our northern 

 latitudes has witnessed enough to know 

 that cold or confinement, or both, do 

 not cause bee cholera or dysentery." 

 Now, I claim the title "bee-keeper"' 

 (whether of experience or not I dare not 

 say), and live in the "northern lati- 

 tudes," yet I cannot be one of the num- 

 ber above styled as "every," fori believe 

 confinement doescause the so-called dys- 

 entery, and hope to so clearly show it in 

 this article that you will so acknowl- 

 edge also. 



First. I once produced dysentery (I 

 do not believe this is a disease, but 

 merely an accumulation of the feces) in 

 its worst form, the latter part of June, 

 by confining a lot of bees to the hive 

 ! for 10 days. A frame of brood was taken 

 | from the hive with the adhering bees, 

 and also a frame of honey with the bees 

 which were on that, and placed in an 

 empty hive to form a nucleus, the bees 

 being confined to the hive for three or 

 four days,when the entrance was opened 

 in the evening. Early the next morn- 



ing there came on a cold storm and bad 

 weather ensued, so the bees could not 

 fly for six more days. On the tenth day 

 the sun came out, and the bees from 

 these nuclei (7 in number) were so loaded 

 that they could scarcely fly. An exam- 

 ination revealed that they had eaten on 

 an average about 2 lbs. of honey in each 

 nucleus. Nuclei made but a few days 

 before, which had flown 2 or 3 times be- 

 fore the bad weather, were not eager to 

 fly, and showed no signs of dysentery, 

 neither did our full colonies ; nor had 

 they eaten an undue amount of honey. 

 The trouble here was evidently confine- 

 ment, which caused the bees to worry 

 and thereby consume an undue quantity 

 of food, thus producing a necessity to 

 void the excrement, or dysentery, if you 

 please to call it so. 



Again, in the fall of 1878 our bees 

 were prepared for winter in the best 

 possible shape, and had nothing but 

 white honey in their hives, said lioney 

 being collected the early part of July, 

 for we had no fall honey. Sixty colonies 

 were put in the cellar, and 90 left on the 

 summer stands, two-thirds of which 

 were packed with chaff and straw. 

 Winter set in early, and the weather 

 was so cold that no bees could fly with 

 safety for nearly i}4 months. At the 

 end of 4 months some of our best colo- 

 nies were dead, with the combs and 

 hives soiled badly, while others sitting 

 right alongside of them were in as fine 

 condition as could be, and remained 

 thus, coming out strong in the spring. 

 If it was " bacteria" in the honey, why 

 did not all die, as all had the same 

 stores ? We also placed 60 colonies from 

 the same yard in the cellar on the 1st of 

 November, and did not set them out till 

 May 1st, and 55 of the 60 came out in 

 good condition, while we only saved 15 

 out of the 90 out-doors — 75 dying with 

 the dysentery, so-called. If it was in- 

 fection of the honey, why did not those 

 in the cellar die also, and especially as 

 they stood 6 month's confinement? The 

 past winter has shown the same results, 

 only our loss is but about 10 per cent, 

 so far. 



Now I will give my conclusion. From 

 practical experience I have been forced 

 to the conclusion that confinement is 

 the cause of all wintering troubles, for 

 surely, bees do not die from what they 

 eat in July weather when they can fly. 

 But confine them to the hive with July 

 weather, and they cannot live one-third 

 as long as in cool or cold weather. That 

 confinement is the result whenever the 

 mercury falls below 40 to 45° in the 

 shade, and as surely as the mercury stays 

 below this for 60 days in succession, 

 bees not properly protected will suffer 

 therefrom, and if properly protected, 

 120 days will more or less hurt those on 

 the summer stands ; that 180 days' con- 

 finement in a good cellar can be endured 

 by the bees as well as 120 days in well- 

 protected hives, or 60 days with no pro- 

 tection on the summer stands ; that if 

 60 days more of confinement is added in 

 either case, not 1 colony in 10 can sur- 

 vive, no matter what the food is nor the 

 surrounding conditions. Now, wetome 

 to our last point, which is, that instead 

 of the trouble being in the kind of honey 

 eaten thus producing dysentery, the 

 trouble is in the quantity eaten, and as 

 the quantity consumed is to the number 

 of days the bees are confined, so is their 

 length of life shortened or extended. 

 For instance, a fair-sized colony may 



