IAve Stock. 



[July, 190 



haunt even when its honey is removed. 

 It is very furious in nature, and is said 

 to attack men and animals most merci- 

 lessly. The comb deposited by the 

 species is usually several feet long and 

 over one inch in thickness. In spite 

 of its wild and aggressive habits, its 

 honey is largely collected by the hill- 

 tribes during the most favourable 

 seasons. 



There are three kinds of honey and 

 wax recognised by these hill-men and 

 jungle tribes. The first variety is called 

 'Rock Honey' made by large insects 

 and found in holes and hollows of rocks. 

 It is ot very coarse quality, and both 

 the honey and wax are dark in colour. 

 The honey made by the middle-sized 

 bees is lighter than that found in the 

 rocks. It is generally found in the hol- 

 lows of trees, and this may be put down 

 as the second variety. The third and 

 best is that made by the mosquito bees. 

 The wax also is very fine and excep- 

 tionally white. The 'rock houey' at 

 times turns to be very poisonous, the 

 large-sized bees having collected the 

 honey from the blossoms of Sapium 

 Indicum, which is a very poisonous 

 flower. 



Bees generally collect honey from a 

 variety of flowers. The honey derived 

 from the Strobilanthes species and Mis- 

 naferrea is considered particularly arood, 

 whiie that collected from the prickly 

 pear is not. We are told of a kind of 

 honey found in certain forests in the 

 North of Madras Presidency. It does 

 not remain in a liquid state in the comb. 

 It has the appearance of small cells, hard 

 and candied, dropping out like sugar 

 plums. These bees are said to be a small 

 sized variety feeding on the flowers and 

 sweetish bitter fruit of the Meimusop 

 Hexandrcu commonly known in the 

 eastern parts as monkey faced Panlay. 

 Generally some bees gather their honey 

 from the flowers of Venyai (one of the 

 species of which yields the Kino of 

 commerce). There are other flowers 

 also, Cassia Fistula, Albizzia Shorea, 

 Jassamine, etc, from which they largely 

 gather their nectar. Bees, except of 

 the migratory variety, are prone to 

 build their nests over and over again 

 on the same rocks or branches of trees, 

 their colonisation depending on the 

 richness of flowers within the range of 

 their colony. The following rough calcu- 

 lation arrived at regarding the yield of 

 honey and wax seems to be instructive. 

 In the case of ' rock honey,' ordinarily 

 from ten to fifteen combs on each rock, 

 yielding about 150 measures of honey, 

 and about ten maunds of wax, while in 

 the case of the combs found in the hol- 

 lows of trees, where the bees of the A pis 



Dorsata species deposit their comb, each 

 yields about one measure of honey and 

 two pounds of wax. In the case of the 

 mosquito bee, which gives the finest 

 wax and the best honey, the largest 

 comb does not yield more than about a 

 quarter measure of honey and about 

 half a pound of wax. 



We have given a general account of 

 the bees met with in Southern India and 

 their habits. We shall now make a few 

 remarks on bee culture. In Southern 

 India, honey bees are met with in abund- 

 ance, both in forest areas and in tracts 

 of human habitations. Bee farming as 

 understood in Western countries, is not 

 known here ; and in certain places where 

 the people have taken to the domesti- 

 cation of bees on a small scale, the 

 methods they follow are of a very simple 

 nature, as has already been mentioned 

 in the early portion of this article. 

 They have no idea of these intelligent 

 Western contrivances known as frame- 

 hives, queen cages, honey extractors and 

 smokers. They have only a very limited 

 knowledge of the habits and character- 

 istics of bees, and they do not know how 

 to so train the bees as to make them dis- 

 criminate between injurious and harm- 

 less flowers. Then again very little 

 attention is paid to such details as the 

 food of the insects. The successful domes- 

 tication of bees has been found to 

 depend mainly on the attention we pay to 

 such minor details as the feeding of the in- 

 sects, regular supplies of water, protec- 

 tion against parasites, and prudent dis- 

 tribution of hives. A good deal depends 

 on the attention we pay in the matter of 

 properly distributing the hives. Bees 

 are very quarrelsome insects, and the 

 chances of their inadvertently getting 

 into strange hives should as far as pos- 

 sible be lessened, lest fierce encounters 

 might ensue between the different 

 swarms and lead to the complete destruc 

 tion of the whole bee farm. Two things 

 have to be particularly noted in connec- 

 tion with this. The hives should be so 

 arranged as to face in different direc- 

 tions ; and again in hiving regard should 

 be had to the temperature of the hives, 

 as there is the greatest danger of bees 

 deserting the prepared hives placed in 

 the hot sun and entering the wrong 

 hives. 



It is said that the South Indian bees do 

 not store much honey on account of 

 their migratory habits. Some of the 

 swarms are in the habit of frequently 

 leaving the parent hive to found new 

 colonies amidst other congenial surround- 

 ings where they may have within easy 

 reach good flowers in abundance. We 

 read that the apiarists in Western coun- 

 tries have found out that the young 



