328 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



in sugg-estions which I have annually made 

 in the reports which have gone from the 

 Division of Entomology to the head of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and on which 

 were based the recommendations made by 

 the Department to the Committees on Agri- 

 culture in Congress. There are certain 

 points mentioned by Mr. Morrison to which 

 I wish to call attention, as I think they 

 need some further elucidation. He says, 

 regarding Apis dorsata, the giant bee of 

 India: 



" I believe Apis dorsata would be a valu- 

 able acquisition; but as it has never been 

 domesticated, and we are practically with- 

 out information as to its habits, it seems 

 doubtful whether we should ask for govern- 

 ment aid for such a scheme. It seems to 

 me it would require the attention of experi- 

 menters for several years before any thing 

 tangible would result." 



I judge that, when Mr. Morrison wrote 

 this, he had forgotten having written in 

 1896 (see Gleanings, p. 561, Aug. 1, 1896), 

 the following: 



" Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, the friend 

 and co-worker of Dnrwin, is still alive, and 

 takes great interest in bee-keeping, and is 

 as well posted as most bee-keepers in re- 

 gard to practical bee-keeping. He is the 

 man who has told us the most about Apis 

 dorsata. In fact, we could hardly ask for 

 more than he has told us from time to time." 



Let us get from Wallace himself a hint 

 as to what he may know of practical bee 

 management, and also see what he has told 

 us of Apis dorsata. 



Having here before me a copy of Wal- 

 lace's work, "The Malay Archipelago," I 

 quote a paragraph from his description of 

 the manner in which a native of the island 

 of Timor secures the wax and honey from 

 Apis dorsata. The man had ascended a 

 tree, his face, arms, and legs perfectly bare*. 

 "He lay at full length on the limb, and 

 brushed off the remaining bees with his 

 hand, and then, drawing his knife, cut off 

 the comb at one slice close to the trte, and, 

 attaching a thin cord to it, let it down to 

 his companions below. He was all this 

 time enveloped in a crowd of angry bees; 

 and how he bore their stings so coolly, and 

 went on with his work at that giddy height 

 so deliberately, was more than I could un- 

 derstand. The bees were evidently not stu- 

 pefied by the smoke nor driven far away by 

 it ; and it was impossible that the small 

 stream from the torch could protect his 

 whole body when at work. There were 

 three other combs on the same tree, and all 

 were successively taken, and furnished the 

 whole party with a luscious feast of honey 

 and young bees, as well as a valuable lot 

 of wax. After two of the combs had been 

 let down, the bees became rather numerous 

 below, flying about wildly and stinging 

 viciously. Several got about me, and I was 

 soon stung and had to run away, beating 

 them off with my net, and capturing them 

 for specimens. Several of them followed 

 me for at least half a mile, getting into my 



hair and persecuting me most tenaciously, so 

 that I was more astonished than ever at the 

 immunity of the natives. I am inclined to 

 think that slow and deliberate motion, and 

 no attempt at escape, are perhaps the best 

 safeguards." 



Those familiar with bee manipulation 

 scarcely need to read any comments on 

 this, since they will at once see how little 

 knowledge of practical bee manipulation 

 Mr. Wallace possessed at the time he wrote 

 the paragraph. 



What Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace told of 

 Apis dorsata was that: " It builds huge 

 honey-combs, suspended in the open air 

 from the under side of the lofty branches of 

 the highest trees. These are of a semicir- 

 cular form, and often three or four feet in 

 diameter." This is all the information in 

 his work of 650 pages on his travels in the 

 East. Doubtless in communications to the 

 Entomological Society of London, and pos- 

 sibly in periodicals, he may have given 

 some further account of these bees, but 

 nothing from the bee-ke»per's standpoint. 



In my own published articles I have been 

 able to state positively the size, appear- 

 ance, and something of the qualities of the 

 workers, drones, and queens of this spe- 

 cies. I was able to determine that the 

 tongues of the workers of this species are 

 appreciably longer than those of our own 

 honey-bees; also that the combs were not 

 merely three or four feet in diameter, but 

 often reach a length of five feet, and some- 

 times even six feet; that they are composed 

 of hexagonal cells, twenty to the square 

 inch, the brood-comb being 1>^ inches thick, 

 and the upper portion of the comb where 

 honey is stored often six to eight inches in 

 thickness; that no distinctive drone comb is 

 built, but drones are reared in the same- 

 sized cells as the workers ; further, that 

 multiple combs are sometimes built; that 

 is, two or three combs side by side, where 

 the attachment permits, contrary to the 

 statements frequently seen in print to the 

 effect that Apis dorsata is strictly a uni- 

 comb bee. As to their habits, I have been 

 able to state that they are most industrious 

 workers, good honey and wax producers; 

 that they fly with great strength of wing; 

 and that the drones fly in great numbers 

 just at nightfall, even after the flights of 

 the workers have ceased for the day; fur- 

 ther, that the sting of Apis dorsata is not 

 more painful than that of our honey-bees, 

 nor is the bee any more inclined to sting 

 when brought into frame hives, and that it 

 seems to be quite amenable to the use of 

 smoke. Moreover, the colonies which I 

 placed in frame hives did not desert their 

 combs in the frame hives except under con- 

 ditions which would have caused any bees 

 to do the same thing— conditions beyond my 

 control, and largely brought about through 

 enforced neglect of the colonies, occasioned 

 by protracted illness. 



I was able to determine that the workers 

 of Apis dorsata are very tenacious of life; 

 in fact, possess remarkable vitality. The 



