76 PORTO RICO PROGRESS. 
duction of extracted honey, for, as soon as 
there is a flow, supers are added, provided 
the colony is strong and shows a tendency to 
store. : 
It has been found that it takes from 10 to 
20 pounds of honey to produce a pound of 
wax under ordinary conditions, but when 
shook swarming is practiced, wax can be pro- 
duced with a considerable smaller amount of 
honey. When honey is worth from 4\4 to 7 
cents a pound it is more profitable to produce 
it than wax at 25 to 30 cents a pound. 
What Bees Have Done in Porto Rico. 
While at the Experiment Station I had a 
great many inquiries as to how much honey 
a good hive would produce in a year. As no 
figures were available, | planned to set aside 
ten hives and weigh the extracted honey from 
them for a number of years. This work 
could not be undertaken, as there was a great 
demand for nuclei and we felt that we could 
not spare the hives for this experiment. The 
hives, however, were used, each one resting 
on a pair of scales, and their weights were 
taken morning and evening. Although the 
number of hives was limited to two, we ob- 
tained some very valuable data. The read- 
ings showed at what seasons the bees were 
most active, also, what flowers produced the 
greatest amount of honey. During the nine 
months past, from one of the hives was ex- 
tracted 470 pounds, while the other produced 
337. The only period when both hives were 
not gathering was during the month of Sep- 
tember, and during this time the small hive 
gathered sufficient honey so that it did not 
have to use any of its surplus honey. Begin- 
ning the latter part of February, March, April 
and May, the bees worked on the general 
bloom, and it was not uncommon for them to 
gather from one to two pounds of honey per 
day. July and August were good honey 
months; during these two months one of the 
hives gathered 203 pounds of honey. 
There is a very bright future for the bee- 
keeper on the Island. There are no bee 
mas facil cuando se produce miel de ex- 
traccién, pues entonces tienen ellas menos 
tendencia 4 formar enjambres. La miel se 
produce en cuadros de mayor tamafio, y las 
abejas no tienen que trabajar tanto como 
cuando producen la miel en pequefias sec- 
ciones. Las abejas no comenzaran 4 llenar 
las secciones de 4 libra hasta no haber ocupa- 
do todas las celdas disponibles en la caja 
de cria. Esta sujecién de la cria despierta 
en ellas la fiebre de formar enjambres; si no 
se las vigila producen poca miel en las sec- 
ciones, y 4 lo mejor se forma un enjambre 
disminuyendo de este modo la fuerza produc- 
tora de la colmena. No sucede asi cuando se 
produce miel por extraccién, porque tan pron- 
to como hay gran abundancia de miel, se afia- 
den sobrepuestos, siempre que la colonia sea 
fuerte y demuestre una actividad 6 tenden- 
cia 4 almacenar. 
Se ha observalo que para producir una 
libra de cera se necesitan de diez 4 veinte 
libras de miel en con liciones ordinarias; pe- 
ro cuando se lleva 4 cabo la enjambracién 
artificial, puede obtenerse cera con menor 
cantidad de miel. Cuando la miel se vende 
de 414 47 centavos la libra es mas prove- 
choso producirla, que no Ja cera vendida 4 20 
6 30 centavos la libra. 
Lo que han hecho las abejas en Puerto Rico. 
Durante mi permanencia en la Estacion Ex- 
perimental, muchos me preguntaron acerca de 
la cantidad de miel que una buena colmena 
podria producir en un afio. Como no tenia 
datos 4 la mano, dispuse separar diez col- 
menas y pesar la miel extraida de las mismas. 
durante un cierto nimero de afios. No pude 
llevar 4 cabo este plan porque habia muchos. 
pedidos, y nos dimos cuenta de la imposibili- 
dad de separar las colmenas que necesitdba- 
mos para nuestros experimentos. Pudimos, 
sin embargo, utilizar dos colmenas, las cuales 
colocamos de modo que descansaran sobre 
dos balanzas y pudieran ser pesadas mafiana 
y noche. Aunque el ntimero de colmenas. 
qued6 reducido 4 dos, pudimos obtener va- 
