Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1892 — GIANT BEES OF INDIA. [ARTICLE]

GIANT BEES OF INDIA.

TO BF. INTRODUCED INTO THIS COUNTRY. They Build Combs ns Big as House Doors—Prospects for Introducing them 1o Southern Forests—Bee Lore. The Department of Agriculture is about to scud mi expedition to India for the purpose of procuring certain giant bees xvhioh are xvihl in that eoautrx. Tliev arc the biggest species known i.i the xx'orlil. and tliev build c mibs in the so ests ns large as or liiutrv house doors. Tlioso lingo combs, bunging from the limbs of lofty trees or from projecting ledges of rock at u high altitude, give enormous quantities of wax. Hoe limiting is u profession in India The bee banters wear no clothing save breeclidoths. They have a superstitious four of the insects. Though dreading to encounter them on fair terms they are very skillful in attacking their.nests by stratagem. Their usual method is to climb the tree from a high limb of which the comb depends, sxvinging beloxv the hive a long stick xvitii a bunch of ignited leaves on the end of it, until the bees are driven out. many of them falling with singed xvings to the ground, but tho majority ascending into the air above the comb and hovering in a dead. This opportunity is taken by the seeker after spoil to cut sway the grout comb, xvhioh lie quickly lowers by means of a rope to the ground beloxv. One gets a notion of tiie vast quantities of honey and xvax collected in this manner from the stores of the latter material to bo seen in the warehouses and shops of tlm cities, tons upon tons of it together. It is an article ot extensive export from India. Tho proposition is to fetch those bees to this country and domesticate them here if possible. If they could spread their swarms in tho semi-tropical forests ot tho I nitial Status they might, he niudo to supply considerable crops of tho truest and most valimblo xvax. Curiously enough, the drones of this species are no larger than ordinary bees, and tills fact affords leuson for liopiug that they will mate with the females of stocks already acclimated hero. These wonderful insects from India liavo longer tongues than lire possessed by other bees, and the belief is entertained that they could secure from many' kinds of flowers honey which now goes to waste. Dreadful stories are told in tho country where tlusv belong of their extraordinary ferocity' and ot attacks illicit they have made upon wholo villages of people with fatal results, but the fact bus boon demonstrated that capable bee-keepers can handle thorn easily and safely. Considerable numbers of bumble boos have recently been imported from Europe in to Australia and Now Zealand. Hitherto growers of red clover in those countries have boon obliged to obtain seed for planting eaeh year from England, bee use this crop produced no seed, lor lack of bumble bees to fertilize the blossoms. Humble bees find in red clover their favorite diet, am] xvitliout their aid in distributing pollen this plant would soon perish off tlm face ot tho earth. Finding it very expensive to import tlioir rod clover seed mutually, the fanners of tho countries mentioned decided to procure bumble bees for themselves. Accordingly n lot were taken while in the hibernating stage, during cold weather, packed in moss und carried aver tho ocean in the refrigerator compartment of a ship. They were set loose on arrival and already they lmvo multiplied so numerously in that part of tho world that it is fonred they will become a nuisance by consuming all tho flower juices which the honeybees require for their own purposes. It seems to be the same xvay with every sort of uuiuial that is introduced to Australia, Invariably tho boast, bird or insect proceeds at once to flourish to such un extent us to upset the normal balance of Broutiou.

The bumble bee and the honey-making bee proper are cousins. Scientifically speaking they are families belonging to the same order. Four species of bees are known. Three of them are indigenous to Indin and are found nowhere save in that, part of the world. The fourth, known as the “Mallica,” is distributed all over the globe. It includes a number of varieties, all of which were very likely derived from one stock at the beginning. Bees, like rats, have spread with man, though from a different cause. They have accompanied the human race as servants, not as scavengers. It is well known that the ancients kept bees. They are frequently represented on the monuments of Egypt, and in that country centuries before Cleopatra reigned they were cultivated on a very large scale. Thousands of barges freighted with hives were flouted up and down the Nile in order to afford the insects pasturr on the flowers along the banks. There were no bees in America until the seventeenth century, when the common black variety was brought over from Germany. It is that kind which swarms all over the United States to-day. But within recent years bee-keeping has been reduced to scientific principles, and so it has been sought to procure from abroad finer breeds. Important among these is the Italian, which was fetched to this country first in 1859. Italian bees have many advantages from the industrial point of view. They are docile and easily handled; they are very prolific and they protect their hives better than the black ones do from the ravages of the wax moths. These moths lay their eggs in the combs, and the larva; feed upon the wax and pollen, destroying the cells. In 1881 Mr. Benton, a well-known expert, went abroad and brought hither other choice breeds from Cyprus, Syria and Palestine. These, particularly the Cyprian, are all very handsome and thoroughly business bees, possessing extraordinary energy in honey gathering. They are irritable and for that reason difficult to handle, unless one knows how.

Nowadays boe-keopers select their stock as carefully as farmers do cattle. Hundreds of people all over the country make a profitable business of raising pure-bred Italian or other queens for market. In each hive are engendered from a dozen to 300 queen bees, depending upon the race. If left alone they would nearly all bo killed by being stung to death iu their cells, because a bee household can never have more than on mistress ; but tho breoder removes the portion of the comb which contains these queen cells before their occupants are ready to emerge, and he puts ouo of them, with a bit of comb and honey, into each of a number of ininature hives made for the purpose, with a few handfuls of bees in each. Thus many thousands of queen beos may be produced in a season arid, inasmuch as well bred ones sell for from $3 to $5 each, the business is lucrative. For some so-called Panic queens, of an alleged new stock, os much as fBO apiece has recently been asked. In fact, however, these are merely of the Tunis-

lan variety from Africa, figuring under a fresh name. When tho young queens are ready to mate the breeders shut up the drones in all the hives save those contuin ng l.ho best stock, thus securing the most desirable offspring. A queen, to fetch a good price, must have already produced satisfactory progeny, so that the mating shall have been proved all right.—[Washington Star.