194 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL June 



BEES AND BEEKEEPING IN THE ORIENT 



YELL< >\Y bees, in all the Levant, 

 from Greece in the north, all 

 around Asia Minor, down 

 through Syria and Palestine and far- 

 away Egypt in the extreme south 

 group, are, so to say. all around the 

 Island of Cyprus as the center poinl 

 They arc yellowest in Cyprus and, as 

 they are more distant from this cen- 

 ter, gradually become darker. 



On the Syrian coast, and up the 

 Lebanon, the "Syrian race" is near- 

 est in semblance to their ancestor, 

 the Cyprian, as to size and color. 

 Further down the country, south of 

 the Lebanon and to the river known 

 as Wady Ghuzzeh, below Gaza, lives 

 the third race, the "Holy Land" bees. 

 A fourth type, at least as large as 

 the Cyprian, exists on the south ex- 

 tremity of Asia Minor, just north of 

 the Island of Cyprus. The fifth type 

 is the Egyptian, completely separated 

 from its congeners of the Holy Land 

 by the wilderness of Sinai. The 

 Egyptian bee is far the smallest and 

 the darkest of the yellow races. 



I have seen and studied the Cypri- 

 ans at Larnaka, Cyprus; the Syrians 

 at Beirut and Sidon, Syria; the Holy 

 Lands from Acre in the north to the 

 Carmel— to Xazareth, and south to 

 the plains of the Philistines, to Jaffa 

 and Jerusalem; the Egyptians near 

 Alexandria and Cairo, up close to the 

 Pyramids of Ghiseh. 



The Syrians and Holy Lands differ 

 slightly from each other, but if Cy- 

 prians and Holy Lands are compared, 

 the difference is more striking than 

 between Cyprians and Syrians. 



All these bees are very irritable if 

 not handled carefully, and especially 

 amply smoked before they are al- 

 lowed to become over-irritated. Very 

 adverse reports concerning them 

 have been made by many writers, 

 but I handled hundreds of full honey- 

 producing colonies for over ten years 

 in their native lands, and though I 



By Ph. J. Baldensperger 



had many bad experiences with irri- 

 tated colonies, yet when carefully 

 handled, smoking them sufficiently 

 .Mid giving them time enough to 

 know that they are going to be ma 

 nipulated, they are as supportable as 

 any other race. We had about 500 

 hives on the same square in the sub- 

 urbs of Jaffa at one time, and as we 

 were then (in 188S) five brothers, we 

 decided that so many bees, with 

 about 15 persons running about the 

 yard, was too much excitement, and 

 we separated them for the following 

 years into several lots of a hundred 

 to a hundred and fifty hives. There 

 were plentj "i "range trees in the 

 immediate vicinity and we thought it 

 necessary to separate them for short 

 distances only. At one time in 1890 

 my elder brother was in charge of a 

 hundred and fifty hives at not more 

 than three hundred yards from the 

 hundred and fifty in my charge. My 

 brother was always in a hurry to 

 finish his work and had two or three 

 natives to help him— I am almost 

 tempted to say — stir up the bees. As 

 a matter of fact, animals and men 

 were often stung when passing the 

 road, a distance of 50 yards. In my 

 apiary, where I used very little na- 

 tive help, especially about the 1" i 

 I never had any complaint of being 

 stung; the above road leading past 

 my apiary at the same distance as 

 was my brother's apiary. 



In Beyrout, too, the apiary was 

 close to the windows of the garden 

 house, below the American College, 

 and before going to work in the api- 

 ary I could walk up and down or 

 stand in front of a hive, watching the 

 queens on their matrimonial excur- 

 sion, without ever being molested. 

 With help in the apiary and a man 

 :,. hold the smoker and puff smoke al 

 the bees when it is necessary, or ab- 

 staining from smoke in the nick "t 

 time, stings are not rare, even with 

 the gentle Carniolans, to say nothing 



Fig. 1. 



of "iir lively Levantines, beginning 

 u ith t he Cyprians. 



I lu beautiful orange-colored seg- 

 ments at once distinguish the Cypri- 

 ans from their Syrian neighbors. The 

 crescent at the base of the thorax is 

 brighter in Cyprians than in any 

 other yellow race. The bees them- 

 selves are more slender than the 

 Italians and, as a matter of course, 

 are more lively. They rise early and 

 come home late and are ever ready 

 to defend their hives, a characteris- 

 tic of all Orientals. 



The races of bees living in western 

 countries are never troubled to such 

 an extent as the Orientals with all 

 kinds of pests, amongst which the 

 most prominent are the innumerable 

 hornets (vespa crabro), which assail 

 them from July to October and oblige 

 them to be ever on the lookout against 

 attacking enemies. They propolize 

 their hives exceedingly, at the en- 

 trance, in order to defend themselves 

 against intruders. The drones of the 

 Cyprians have big orange segments, 

 esnecially on the under side of the 

 abdomen, with dark brown spots on 

 the top, giving them a very pleasant 

 look, reminding one of the panther- 

 like shabrack or saddle-blanket used 

 by eastern warriors. Very likely the 

 yellow bees originated in Cyprus and 

 were known to the inhabitants long 

 before they were known on the con- 

 tinent or in Syria. Herodotus re- 

 norts that the inhabitants of Ama- 

 thontis cut the head off Onesilius 

 and suspended it before one of their 

 gates. When the skull was empty, a 

 swarm of bees took possession of 

 this queer hive and filled it with 

 comb and honey. The inhabitants 

 consulted the oracle on what to do: 

 the answer was: "Bury the skull 

 and offer a yearly sacrifice to the 

 hero." 



The Philistines win. came from Cy- 

 prus and the isles and taught their 

 arts in southern Palestine, also im- 

 ported bees and kept beekeeping as 

 a secrel branch of agriculture, long 



1 re the Hebrews knew anything 



of the existence of bees and honey. 

 Mir Cyprians are ti prolific and 



1 1 honey gatherers as their sisters 



of Lebanon and Jordan districts. 

 though Occidental writers hav: trud 

 to dei i \ them and favor the Italians 

 , .r many reasons, the first of which 

 : , easier access to Italy than to the 

 Orient, 



\ v ell known authority on ( ypri- 



1 i .ink Benson, "lire said to me : 



"\,\ l n , r, en Cj "nans rami..! gel 



i .,,ii 'he bare rocks in Cy- 



iii " I.e. ause of the s. arcity "I 

 'i ni ' i . 1 . 1 1 1 1 s 



The home of the Syrian bees is lim- 

 ited ..n the north l>v Asia Minor, on 



the east by the great Syrian Desert. 



into which no bees penetrate, and oi 



the Mediterranean stops them 



short "ii the west, and the Lebanon 



[i i unning down towards Pheni- 



cia limits them on the south and sep- 



