Mr. Darwin subsequently introduced me to Mr. Wallace, to whom I am indebted for the following particulars:—“In Borneo and Timor the wax forms an important article of commerce. The combs hang on the under side of horizontal limbs of lofty trees, often one hundred feet from the ground.
“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.
The winter management, of a necessity, involves some things that must be done in the fall; and let me premise by saying that almost, if not all of the operations and manipulations of bees, are quite simple, when the natural habits and requirements of the insect are well understood, and with a reasonable amount of intelligence and perseverance the object is accomplished. Let me assure new beginners, and those that have not begun, that the honey will much more than compensate for the labor bestowed upon them, as I know of no branch of rural pursuits that, in dollars and cents, pays as well. And the pleasure derived from a study of their nature and habits, will far more than compensate, in a scientific point of view, for all their stings.
In preparing for winter, of necessity it is incumbent upon us to see or learn that they have sufficient food to carry them through until they can procure it for themselves;—say twenty or twenty-five pounds if wintered in a special depository, and twenty-five or thirty if wintered on their summer stands.