'.fS 



150 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



must be judged on its own merits and 

 a given area, which will support only 

 twenty colonies in one region, may 

 support one thousand elsewhere. It is 

 also obvious that seasons vary to a 

 marked degree. In many parts of the 

 mainland, it is deemed advisable to 

 keep not more than one hundred col- 

 onies in one apiary and to allow each 

 apiary a radius of one and one-half to 

 three miles. On the basis of these 

 figures, from fifty to two hundred 

 acres are necessary to support single 

 colony of bees. Without discussing the 

 merits of these figures, it is enough 

 to say that this is the common main- 

 land praictice, particularly the more 

 densely populated areas. In contrast to 

 this, an examination 6f the methods in 

 Hawaii are extremely significant. One 

 area of cane on the Island of Oahu con- 

 tains a little over twenty thousand 

 acres. Near this is some algarroba 

 forest, but not enough to influence the 

 crop very much. This area supports 

 nearly five thousand colonies, some of 

 w^hich yield exceptionally large crops. 

 In certain parts of this area competi- 

 tion is too strong to yield proper re- 

 sults, but some apiaries yield over two 

 hundred pounds to the colony. In 

 some other cane areas, this record can 

 be almost equalled. Algarroba will not 

 produce so much per acre, but thig is 

 partly due to the fact that it blooms 

 for less - than six months while cane 

 fields furnish honey dew every day in 

 the year. One strip of algarroba for- 

 est on Molokai supports nearly two 

 thousand colonies; it will not average 

 more than one-half mile in width and 

 about thirty miles of it is used for bees. 



Sources of Honey. 



Floral Honey. — The amount of floral 

 honey produced on the islands annual- 

 ly is about three hundred tons. For- 

 merly the only source of honey on the 

 islands which was widely enough dis- 

 tributed to make bee-keeping commer- 

 cially important was algarroba, native 

 "Keawe." This tree was introduced 

 to the islands by Father Bachelot, 

 founder of the Roman Catholic mis- 

 sion, in 1837, and the original tree still 

 stands on Fort street in Honolulu. 

 It has been carried to all the islands 

 and is one of the most valuable things 

 ever introduced to the group. It fur- 

 nishes not only an excellent honey, 

 but the pods furnish excellent fodder 

 and the wood is the main article of 

 fuel. 



The honey from algarroba is "water 

 white" in color and granulates very 

 soon after it is stored by the bees in 

 spite of the warm climate of the is- 

 lands. This characteristic makes fre- 

 quent extractions necessary to pre- 

 vent the combs from being clogged. 

 In regions where algarroba is practi- 

 cally the only source of honey, at the 

 close of the flow an amount of honey 

 sufficient to keep up the colony until 

 the next flow is left in the hive. This, 

 of course, soon granulates. When the 

 honey flow diminishes, the brood 

 chamber is reduced and considerable 

 honey is stored in the space formerly 

 occupied by brood. When the next 

 flow comes on a good deal of this 

 granulated honey remains in the 

 combs and since this cannot be ex- 

 tracted, these combs are removed and 

 replaced either by empty combs or by 

 foundation to give the queen more 

 room. These combs containing granu- 

 lated honey are then placed in huge 

 solar extractors, the largest that I 

 ever saw. With two hundred or more 

 colonies in an apiary, there is often 

 need for a solar extractor which will 

 hold several hunderd combs at a time 

 and practically every apiary had such 

 a piece of apparatus as part of the 

 equipment. The sun's heat liquefies 

 the honey and melts most of the wax, 

 and the wax from the "slumgum" is 

 then extracted by the usual methods. 

 The honey from these solar extractors 

 is not darkened as one would^ expect. 



The algarroba tree is either the 

 same species as, or very closely re- 

 lated to, the mesquite of the south- 

 west (Prosopis juliflora). On the is- 

 lands it grows to the size of a tree as 

 is also the case in Mexico. In Texas 

 it is very much smaller. In 1908 the 

 trees came in bloom about March 1st, 

 the time varying considerably in 

 different localities on tlfe islands. It 

 usually blooms until August, and this 

 very long blooming period adds great- 

 ly to its value to the bee-keepers. 



The following list of honey plants, 

 other than the algarroba, is taken 

 from Bulletin No. 170, of the Office of 

 Experiment Stations Report on Agri- 

 cultural Investigations .in Hawaii, 1905, 

 from the report of the Entomologist, 

 D. L. Van Dine: 



Various species of Acacia — wattle, 

 koa, etc. 



Sisal (Agave sisalana.) 



Alligator pear (Persea gratissima.) 



Banana (Musa spp.) 



