THE CUBA R E V I E W 15 



of honey ; but the -wi-iter could not help thmking of what would happen to the native 

 on one of these ladders if lie should in liis search for honey come across a group of 

 bees whose tempers were worse than those of the ordinary Cuban insect. 



Since that date the writer himself has kept bees in that same old Cubitas Valley, 

 and after moving west has had opportunity of observing the different systems employed 

 at the present time by all of Cuba's most modern bee-keepers. In the old system still 

 employed by the very great majority of the producers of Cuba's honey and wax, as 

 we have just indicated, round logs are utilized for hives. Tliese are sometimes 

 secured in the woods in their natural condition, trees being found whose interiors 

 have decayed, and in order to prepare them, it is onlj' necessary to remove thoroughly 

 the decayed wood, but in many other cases the hives are prepared from solid logs, 

 usually of cedar, trees being selected of the diameter best suited to the bee-keeper's 

 need, the bark taken off the log, which is then split in halves and each half is hollowed 

 out, leaving only the necessary thickness to make a hive that will well resist decay, 

 after which by means of large staples the two halves are fastened together, thus 

 making the complete hive. No frames or artificial means of inducing the bees to 

 make straight combs are used in these hives, so that practically the apiarist has no 

 control over his bees, the method being strictly hit or miss. For this reason and 

 because the mouths of the hive are very large, it is very difficult at certain times 

 to keep the bees from injuring one another, as in times of dearth of honey-producing 

 flowers "robbing" starts and results often in the annihilation practically of many 

 colonies. Furthermore, with the great freedom of entrance and exit of these hives, 

 it is a very difficult task to control contagious diseases, and from this cause also 

 many apiaries are practically decimated at times of scarcity of supplies. There are, 

 however, many localities in Cuba where transportation is extremely difficult and 

 where for this reason the hives supplied by old mother nature are practically the 

 only ones obtainable, and in these places, many of them excellent as situations for 

 apiaries, it is possible only to utilize the liives that the apiarists find at hand, so 

 that, regardless of the continued progress that may be made by Cuba's apiarists, the 

 old native hive will still be found in large numbers in such localities and will be used 

 largely for the production of wax, as, of course, it is practically an impossible task 

 to remove such a heavy product as is honey from these places. 



But in all that vast region of Cuba where the native cart can penetrate and 

 where, therefore, the production of honey can be an object, the modern system of 

 bee-keeping with the modern box hive in which movable frames are used and in 

 which a very large percentage of the honey is obtained from supers (boxes with 

 frames placed over the modern hive containing the brood frames and most freciuently 

 separated therefrom by sheets of zinc with perforations of a size sufficiently large 

 to enable the working bees to pass, but too small to allow the entrance of the queen, 

 thus pi-eventing her access to the combs qf the supers and causing their contents to 

 be confined exclusively to honey), is becoming more and more in vogue. The native 

 bee-keepers have seen the benefits to be derived from this system and from the almost 

 complete control Avhich it gives the apiarist over the bees and their method of Avork 

 as also over their product, and the knowledge concerning this system is being rapidly 

 taught by practical example, as also by the teachings of the Central Agricultural 

 Experiment Station at Santiago de las Vegas, which is at the present time devoting 

 more time to this subject than ever before. In the old system of bee-keeping the 

 honey was removed from the combs by their destruction, the combs being cut from 

 the old time hives, placed in rude sacks or bags of rough porous material, oftentimes 

 common burlap being used, and pressed out, and, as in the combs, were often found 

 quite considerable masses of brood, "bee bread," and other extraneous materials, 

 ^itliis caused the honey frequently to be dirty, giving rise to the opinion held in com- 

 mercial quarters that Cuban honey was not of .prime quality; but in the new system 

 the method of extraction by centrilugal force' and the modern honey extractor is 

 gaining ground, with the resulting SiVing of the combs and the saving to the bees of 



