THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



419 



Bees from Syria and Cyprus. 



The following is the discussion on 

 this subject at the British Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association, after the reading of 

 the paper by Mr. T. B. Blow, entitled 

 " A bee-keeper's experience in the 

 East," which will be found on page 

 327, and is taken from the British Bee 

 Journal for June. 



In answer to a member Mr. Blow 

 said that he attributed the smallness 

 of the Cyprian bees to their breeding 

 in old combs continually. lie thought 

 the bees would develop by the culture 

 of this country, from the fact that the 

 queens were not small. Some of the 

 queens that he sent out were small 

 owing to long confinement in their 

 hives. The Cyprian and Syrian 

 queens are not quite so large as our 

 English queens. The people in Cyprus 

 do not remove the old comb for years, 

 simply removing the backcombs only. 



The Kev. T. Sissons said he thought 

 Cyprians were the handsomest bees 

 we had in the world. They were not 

 only remarkably handsome but cheer- 

 ful. Their notions of ineum and tuum 

 ■were rather peculiar. They seemed 

 to have proper notions of meum; they 

 defend meum with remarkable cour- 

 age. He was afraid they were not 

 bees for a clergyman to keep, as their 

 notions of tumn were exceedingly 

 vague. They were thoroughly de- 

 moralized ; they went out, got all they 

 could, and gave up nothing. He had 

 been working with them for about 

 two years, and he found no increase 

 of size. The queens were about the 

 same size ; and the workers did not 

 increase. Nor did he think, judging 

 by their appearance, were they likely 

 to increase. They appeared to be 

 quite different from the Ligurians. 

 But he found theme.xcellent workers, 

 ■working early and late, and in all 

 •weathers; they propoUzed with wax. 

 With regard to their tempers he was 

 bound to say tliat you must under- 

 stand them if you are to manage them. 

 They were like some people whom he 

 knew, who, provided they are well 

 managed, were the best of friends ; 

 but if you tread on their favorite corn 

 they are awkward to deal with. These 

 •Cypriun bees must be approached in 

 a peculiar way. In the first place, 

 smoke does not appear to affect them ; 

 in faot he had given up the attempt 

 to approach them with smoke ; the 

 law of strong attachment to rneum 

 came out there. If, instead of using 

 smoke, you sprinkle a little water 

 and sugar, that diverted their atten- 

 tion. He found that they were more 

 troublesome toward the end of the 

 year than at tl^ commencement ; they 

 seemed to be specially indignant then 

 to any one taking away the property 

 which they liad accumulated ; he 

 rather admired them for it. He 

 thought that the Cyprian bee was 

 well worthy of culture in this country. 

 During the present summer he in- 

 tended to go in for more of the Cyprian 

 bees. 



In answer to a member Mr. Blow 

 said the cylinders were packed in 



large stacks, and the spaces in front 

 between the cylinders were cemented 

 with mud ; a small hole was pierced 

 at the bottom of each cylinder, and 

 through this hole the bees entered. 

 They had no alighting-board. There 

 was a great difference between the 

 Syrian and Holy Land bee, — a much 

 greater difference than between 

 Syrian and Cyprian themselves. The 

 latter were, in his opinion, almost 

 identical, and really did not deserve 

 to be treated as a distinct variety. 

 But there was a marked difference be- 

 tween the Holy Land bees and the 

 Cyprian, the Holy Land bee being 

 dilterently shaded, and very much 

 more downy. There was a great dif- 

 ference between the Cyprians, the 

 Syrians, and tlie Ligurians ; the 

 Ligurians were much more robust 

 than the two former. With regard to 

 the increase in size, he tliought that 

 a couple or three years' experience 

 was not sufficient. A decrease in 

 size has probably been going on for 

 many generations— he supposed for a 

 thousand years ; although we give 

 them better combs we could not ex- 

 pi;ct them to increase at once. In 

 transferring his liives he had to use a 

 hammer and chisel to break up the 

 clay cylinders, therefore they could 

 imagine the bees getting slightly irri- 

 tated. He found it was useless to 

 smoke them ; but when he used one 

 of those vaporizers, and well sprayed 

 every bee in the hive, then he rarely 

 got a sting. The Cyprian and Syrian 

 queens were much more lively than 

 the English queens. In the first 

 twenty or thirty colonies that he 

 transferred the operation took place 

 in the open air, he found the queens 

 were not always in the hive, though 

 they had evidently been there very 

 recently ; he was certain they took 

 flight, because he caught the queen in 

 one case as she was flying. After 

 that he removed them into a room 

 and transferred them there. 



The Rev. T. Sissons said the Cyp- 

 rian bees were more sociable if they 

 were put in company with some other 

 hives. Where a hive was allowed to 

 stand alone the bees were much more 

 wild than those which were found in 

 company with others. They are 

 something like ourselves in this re- 

 spect — in society we were more amia- 

 ble tlian men who dwelt in the woods. 



Mr. Blow said that from the little 

 he saw of the bees in Cyprus he 

 thought there was no doubt tliey were 

 much larger than our English bees, 

 and much stronger on the wing. 

 There was, too, a marvelous amount 

 of honey in their hives. The way 

 they flew out in the morning and 

 came in loaded quite impressed one 

 with their superiority. There was no 

 doubt that the queens were far more 

 prolific. 



Mr. Cheshire, being called upon for 

 a few remarks on the subject, said 

 tjliat he was afraid his experience 

 would not help any one. The first 

 Cyprian queen that came into his 

 possession was in a diseased or in- 

 jured condition ; it had been origin- 

 ally the property of Mr. Jackson. 

 Mr. Jackson told him that Cyprian 

 bees did not hold to their combs so 



strongly as others. Certainly he 

 found that statement perfectly true 

 with regard to the queen ; she was 

 blown off the comb — while he had one 

 of the combs out of the hive— no 

 fewer than four times. Besides, she 

 was found outside the hive four times. 

 With regard to the remark about 

 the size, his experience lay in an op- 

 posite direction as to the queen ; this 

 queen never weighed more than the 

 average English one. Mr. Benton 

 sent him a Cyprian queen, and she 

 did not weigh more than the average 

 English worker, being small in the 

 abdomen her bees were small. With 

 regard to the size of the bee. he was 

 inclined to think that they were likely 

 to fall into a mistake on that point. 

 Tliere was an idea current that if 

 they increased the size of the bee they 

 were increasing its usefulness or 

 fruitfulness. These two qualities, or 

 ideas, did not necessarily run together. 

 They must bear in mind that the 

 carrying power of an animal was not 

 in proportion to cube or square of its 

 measurements. Supposing they took 

 a horse and increased its size, so that 

 it stood ten feet instead of five, they 

 would have a horse which, upon 

 mathematical grounds, would have 

 only half the relative power. All who 

 were acquainted with the laws of con- 

 struction knew perfectly well that if 

 they increased the bight of a building 

 they must increase the strength of 

 the under parts, or they would not be 

 able to support it. If they increased 

 the size of the bee tliey did not in- 

 crease its power proportionately. The 

 bee visited an enormous number of 

 blooms, and if you had a large num- 

 ber of bees of a smaller size you had 

 really a larger number capable of 

 visiting a larger number of blooms, 

 and proportionately more honey 

 gathered than in the case of a large 

 bee gathering relatively a smaller 

 quantity of honey in proportion to its 

 size. He thought it had been shown 

 that the social bees were smaller, and 

 that those bees who lived by them- 

 selves were very much bigger. The 

 first Cyprian queen, as he liad said, 

 was injured, and one had no ground 

 upon which to form a judgment. The 

 next Cyprian qeeen showed some re- 

 markable peculiarities '- she came 

 from the north of the island ; the bees 

 she Ibred were not so bright in color as 

 those bred by the first cure. He had 

 had four ; they constantly raised 

 queen-cells, and the bees evidently 

 destroyed their own queen. The 

 third queen, which lie got from the 

 north of the island of Cyprus, raised 

 bees of a dark color. This Uist queen 

 sent by Mr. Benton was going on 

 fairly well. She was extremely small, 

 her bees were small though bright, 

 with regard to the tempers, the queen 

 (the third in number t^int came into 

 his possession) had raised bees that 

 were not generally irritable, but if 

 they were disturbed they were furious 

 beyond expression. On one occasion, 

 when he transferred a swarm from 

 one hive to the other, he was stung at 

 least a hundred times during the 

 operation ; they were utterly uncon- 

 fcrollable ; yet these bees previously 

 had been easily handled. They read 



