A BRIEF SURVEY OF HAWAIIAN BEE KEEPING. 47 



be discussed later, this is not all equally productive from a bee-keeping 

 standpoint. Near this is some algarroba forest, but not enough to in- 

 fluence the crop very much. This area supports nearly 5,000 colonies, 

 some of which yield exceptionally large crops. In certain parts of 

 this area competition is too strong to yield proper results, but some 

 apiaries yield over 200 pounds to the colony. In some other cane areas 

 this record can be almost equaled. Algarroba will not produce so 

 much per acre, but this is partly due to the fact that it blooms for less 

 than six months, while cane fields furnish honeydew every day in the 

 year. One strip of algarroba forest on Molokai supports nearly 2,000 

 colonies. It will not average more than one-half mile in width, and 

 about 30 miles of it is used for bees. 



SOURCES OE HOITEY. 



FLORAL HONEY. 



The amount of floral honey produced on the islands annually is 

 about 200 tons. Formerly the only source of honey on the islands 

 which was widely enough distributed to make bee keeping commer- 

 cially important was algarroba, native " keawe." (PL VIII, fig. 1.) 

 This tree was introduced into the islands by Father Bachelot, founder 

 of the Eoman Catholic mission, 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 plants ever brought into the 

 group. It furnishes not only an excellent honey, but the pods afford 

 excellent fodder and the wood is the main source 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 islands. This characteristic makes frequent extractions necessary 

 to prevent the combs from being clogged. In regions where algarroba 

 is practically 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 can not be extracted, these combs are re- 

 moved and replaced either by empty combs or by foundation, to give 

 the queen more room. These combs containing granulated honey are 

 then placed in huge solar extractors, the largest that the author had 

 ever seen. With 200 or more colonies in an apiary, there is often need 

 for a solar extractor which will hold several hundred combs at a time, 

 and practically every apiary visited by the author had such a piece of 

 apparatus as part of the equipment. The sun's heat liquefies the 



