The American Bee Journal, Volume VI, Number 3, September 1870Various
Science
The American Bee Journal, Volume VI, Number 3, September 1870
Various
Bee culture -- Periodicals
“I have seen three together as above, and they are often four feet in
diameter. The natives of Timor I have seen take them. They climb up a
tree carrying a smoke torch made of a split creeper bound up in palm
leaves, and hanging by a rope from their waist. They cover up their body
and hair carefully, but their arms and legs are bare. The smoke directed
on the comb makes the bees fly off in a cloud as the man approaches. He
sweeps off the remainder with his hand and then cuts off the comb with a
large knife, and lets it down to his companions below by a thin cord. He
is all the time surrounded by a cloud of bees, and though the smoke no
doubt partly stupefies them, he must be severely stung. While looking on
from a considerable distance a few came down and attacked me, and I did
not get rid of them till I was half a mile from the place and had caught
them all, one by one, in my insect net. The sting is very severe. I
should imagine that in Timor the dry season answers to our winter, as
the drought is very severe and much of the foliage is deciduous.
Eucalypti are the most common trees, and their flowers I suspect supply
the bees with their honey. In Borneo combs are placed in a somewhat
similar manner, perhaps formed by the same species. The only bee I have
seen domesticated in the East is one at Malacca, the natives hang up
bamboos and hollow logs for it, but it is, I believe, not a true Apis,
as it makes clusters of large oval shells of black wax.”
I may add that the Timor bee was named Apis testacea on account of its
color, which is very light, and is, in fact, the only point in which it
differs from Apis dorsata. When some years ago I compared the specimens
in the British Museum, I became impressed with the idea that those which
represented Apis testacea were nothing more than newly-hatched and
immature specimens of Apis dorsata, and so strongly did I urge my views
upon Mr. Smith, that I believe I almost induced him to doubt the
correctness of his own nomenclature, until he was afterwards assured by
Mr. Wallace himself, that they were really mature and fully-developed
adult bees.--A DEVONSHIRE BEE-KEEPER.
* * * * *
Management of Bees in Winter.
The following address on this subject was delivered by Mr. E.
ROOD, of Wayne (Mich.), at the Michigan Bee-keeper’s Convention,
held at Lansing, on the 23d of March last. The crowded state of
our columns and files at the time it was received, prevented an
immediate insertion, and its appearance now will probably be all
the more opportune and serviceable.--ED.
If there be no objection, I would like to reverse the order of the time
or statement of the subject which I am expected to discuss, as the
spring management follows that of the winter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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