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 OF HONEY. 
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." (PI. VIII, fig. 1.) 
This tree was introduced into the islands by Father Bachelot, founder 
of the Roman 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 
