16 



BEE-KEEPING IN HAWAII. 



As already indicated, bees are usually cultivated for their 

 honey, a delicious and wholesome article of food, for which 

 there is a constant demand in the grocery, confectionary and 

 baking trades ; the wax combs can also be rendered into bees- 

 wax; and the bees themselves have a value as an article of 

 trade. 



Almost any one of intelligence can keep bees ; the manipu- 

 lation of the boxes requires no great exertion of strength, and 

 the ways of the bees are readily learned. From one or two to 

 half a dozen hives, however, are about all that can be managed 

 properly in one's leisure time. To go into beekeeping more 

 extensively would require the expenditure of considerable time 

 and money, perhaps more than could be spared by the indi- 

 vidual in ordinary circumstances. Beekeeping as a business 

 venture, whether for the employment of capital or as a means 

 of gaining a livelihood, is quite another matter from the keep- 

 ing of a few colonies. On account of the large amount of 

 capital required to start an apiary on a paying basis, some 

 knowledge of the business and considerable experience with 

 bees are almost indispensable, and a beginner is usually advis- 

 ed to go slowly and cautiously. It should be realized at the 

 outset that there are many factors in industrial beekeeping 

 beyond the successful management of bees, although this, of 

 course, is of primary importance. 



Hawaii offers a great many advantages to the beekeeper; 

 an almost continuous season, absence of brood diseases and 

 other serious enemies of the bees, some exceptionally good 

 pasturage, and fairly efficient and cheap labor. The real draw- 

 back at the present time is the narrow field for extension; 

 the small size of the territory and the previous occupation of 

 nearly all the good pasturage. 



The history of apiculture in the Islands is remarkably in- 

 teresting. The first hive bees were introduced from Califor- 

 nia in 1857, after several unsuccessful attempts to bring them 

 around the Horn from New England. These were undoubted- 

 ly black bees and from all accounts they flourished and many 

 colonies went wild. For three or four decades following their 

 introduction bees were kept in a very desultory fashion and 

 without much interest- In the meantime, the rapid spread of 

 the "kiawe" (algaroba) and the cultivation of cane had made 

 a wonderful change in the bee forage, and it was not long 

 before the commercial possibilities were realized. The first 

 large apiaries were started about fifteen or twenty years ago, 



