Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-30
THE PHILIPPINE BEES
American Apiarists Want the Government to
Get Them.
Huge Honey Gatherers That Make
BentOn's Experience With Them.

honey bee of India, which is known to be
common in Java, Borneo, Sumatra, I.uzon
ard Mindanao, can be introduced in the
subtropical regions of the United States
For several weeks letters and petitions
have been coming to the Secretary of Agri-
culture, asking him to secure East Indian
queen bees from Manila and make the eff
fort to domesticate the species here Pre-
cedent for this course is found in the fact
that the Italian bee was in this wav
brought to the United States by Commits
sloner Holloway In 1850, thereby adding
vastly to the resources of the country
Inc East Indian bee, known scientifically
as apis dorsata, has never yet been success
lully transferred from It's native haunTs to
any part or Europe, and the natives stoutIy
maintain that it cannot be done AS a rule
'hey are very much afraid of it, and do not
care to modest it unless they can find a.
colony at disadvantage and attack it in
such a way as to compass the death of the
bees. The product of the big Indian bee
that Is most desired is not honey but the
wax, which enters so largely into the pro-
Cesses OF dyelng cotton cloth in the orient.
ne wax is used to cover the cloth where
the color is to be stopped out, very much as
II is used for engraving on steel with acid
where there is no wax the dye sets and
"here there is wax the original white re-
MAINS AS there are millions upon millions
OF natives there is a large demand for the
services of apis dorsata and for his way
alone he is hunted everywhere throughout
the east over and above the home con-
sumption the Philippines Export from ten to
twenty tons of wax annually.
The only attempt by an American to
pr1ng these giant bees to this country was
made in 1881 by Mr.. Frank Benton, now
the aDiarist of the Agricultural Depart
ment. who spent fourteen wears studvine
1nIo
east He made a journey at his own ex-
pense as far as BorneO studying the native
bees wherever he went He found the big
bees in CeylOE and decided to trv to take
several colonies of them back to his apiary
at Balrut Syria. Far up in the noun
talns, with the aid of several natives he
found a number of the huge combs hang
ing from a tall cliff, a place which the
bees had evidently sought to keep out of
reach CT wax hunters The natives were
not very successful in getting the bees
Their way of doing it was to let a man
down over the cliff by a rope who by
hShting the bees with torch finally man.
aged to slip a big bag over the pendant
comb and so secure a mass of badly mash
ed comb, honey and bees. AS these combs
We're some of them over six feet long and
from three to four feet wide, the sack
method did not prove effective and Mr.
Benton decided to do the job himself He
rugged two scafOlds, such as painters use
and let them down under the combs on
night he had his force of natives let him
down by rope, and swinging there a hun
dred feet from the rocks below and in
constant danger of a general attack from
the bees, he succeeded in shaking the bees
into one Of the boxes, also catching the
queen, and then putting the comb into the
other. In this way he secured four colonies
and carried them through the weeks Jour-
ney to Syria. But one colony was alive
when he got there. This was much en-
feebled by the hot weather and the con-
finement on the steamer, and when it was
allowed q flight for exercise, as was alb
tered and was lost. During the trip Mr..
Benton was Frustrated by jungle fever
caught while in BOrneo, and could not give
the bees the care that might have brought
them through alive and so produced a
plant from which queens could have been
produced and sent to the United States.
The experience was enough to satisfy Mr..
Benton that the giant bee is reasonably
docile and can be kept in hive and han
died just as Italians are.
For centuries the Indian bee has been
the subject of a good many large stories.
Some travellers have said that it was so
ferocious that it could not be hived Others
have claimed that it built its comb ho.'-
ZOntally; while others said that the insect
was an incorrigible nOmad and bounI 70
wander every year. so that it could never
be kept in an apiary. 1t is true that they
love the wilderness and build their combs
ON high trees, choosing long outstretchng
limbs from which to hang their long, single
TERED comb. They will also fight when mo-
Tested by the wax hunter, whose usual
method is to hold a torch under the comb
and smoke out the bees which fly about in
great CONSERVATION and soon fall within
the flame. Their wings are thus burned off
and they fall to the ground to perish. With
a club the hunter knocks down the coveted
comb. and gets away leaving behind him
thousands of dead bees.
The giant bees, Mr.. Benton says, are
splendid honey gatherers, and he had no
difficulty in handling them without the uss
of smoke. The expectation is that these
bees would get nectar from a large variety
OF honey-producing plants that our native
and Italian bees cannot forage upon be-
cause of their smaller size. 1t is also not
improbable that the Apis dorsata would be
of use to pOlleniZe the large blossoms Of
the red, alsike, buffalo and mammoth clo-
Ners, and in this way take up the work of
our old friend the humble bee, who in the
last few years seems not to be as numerous
and efficient as he once was. The fact,
moreover, that the Indian bee is very ac-
tive wax-gatherer adds to the likelihood of
profit in his domestication here.
The method by which the big bee is to be
brought over here has not yet been decided
upon. 1t is believed that among all the
many thousands of our troops in the Phil
ippines there must be few bee men who
under the direction of the department. could
undertake the job of capturing queens or
entire colonies and sending them to this
country. There would be little difficulty in
sending the queens over, but the colonies
would take more care and some expense.
They could be sent across the Pacific 10
southern California, or they could come by
way of Europe to be dOmiciled in Florida.
Compared with Italians the Indian bees are
about one-third larger The queen is fully
an inch long. The drones are as large as
our humble bees. The workers are as large
as our humble bee, but rather slender and
Wasp-like. The great East Indian bee is
not banded and is yellow winged The va
riety found in the Philippines is even larger
than that found in India, Ceylon, and is
banded yellow and brown.
Gen. Macarthur Under Fire.
From Scribners.