26 JouRNAi,, R. A. s. (cnnoN). [Vol. VII., pt. i.

No. 23.-lBBl.l BEE CULTURE.

259. d6oesj cooorrjO O 259. One individual c,rn
orlesi qr6. ruiu a whole comurunity.
CEYLON BEE CULTURE.
srqtrlo oco.
, CO _@6:.o*6'si 60 260. Ifyou die, the country
260.
_:[tr,f|i$iWi"::: By Seuusr, Jeyerrr,ere, Munerrrli.n.

(Eead April Tth,l89t.)

' toill become cxtittct, and, the coun-
try will wild beast!.,,)
be lelft to I have been iriterested in the culture of the'honey bee of
261. tBocOrO o'O6.d 6 26I. Like drinkins warer Ceylon for'about the last Zd years, from accidentally oieerving
o.oqq cr{qed gOoOrrJ OO flont_3. P.add,z'spumpkir ;h;; at frst the mode of bee-keeping by bee-hunters ancl others in
_ the t,isd,wgwa (tank)
d6OcOr.od. (one).
is before the W'anni, a remote part- oi this district (North_-Western
292. oocOcoeoO ecrrrt '- 262. .WJrat Province.) f set myself to work at once in trying to improve the
ie rhe use of system. By the courtesy of Mr. Ferguson, the senior .Editor
cnco oO,oq 0<6016ro5l. y-r,tus-;.r;,\r
l11n1Ft of the r( GryIon Observerr', I was enabled to iecure works on
y_ou
-are not versed in Bana
--i-- -
lBaddhiet ecripfures)? practical bee-keeping, aud by carefully reading these I endea_
voured to improve the primitive me&ns adopted by the native
p,#:iT:T;^:,2;{;:,;,::; apiarists, but wif.hout success. My thanks are also due to
thc' wefr_hnotol author ;V
-r
$c,
.K6,oyaseh.htra, E. T. Sharpe, Esq., and R. Morris, Esq,, *ho encouraged me
263. Oco ror8 co:rr goq Zffi. Tiny boats (even) much in the puisuit of my experiments by getting out for me
.EQOo Odr6i cos;Oc. venture uo th".;;;..;l;;;; English bee-hives and apparatus for working them.
tott;nt"tthhy
264._ There are four species of honey-bees in Ceylon:-
eQcorotrlo trlrrl:egJ have one nrace
oco.rdOtrJO trr1:rle6j q18 ? to sleep, andanother
'r
' 1.-Ml-O : Apis Indica;
";d";;
265. sdt6rOO ggco er}z, Z6s. A lie is short_lived.. 2.-Danduwel-q$Ord : Apis .Florea ;
&-Bambar6,-OO6: Apis t)orsata; and,
?66' oiDgfgaliqg rrrrc
gQo:ocJ ozorocoaOq ?
266. How can the ncckress A,-Kana Yeyiyd-algroOS ac: Trigona. .
wear a, neck-lace
T\.e Mi Messti (Apis Indica) is the common honey-bee of
Ceylon, and the only species kept by natives. I have had a few
colonies of these from the very beginning, and in the way of
improvement I have transferred. them to pots of quite a
clifferenb shape from the cirdinary narrow-mo*thed p-itrh.r,
::i:li{#.:?hiH:i"uil:",.'ll.f
nororiety for cstrte sto^unf,
',T"",i,till"#:*,.Ti"gl;ni.,: usedbynatives, which required the destruction of the.pot to
proverb was commonlv b;Et";id;;; d;fr;"y robberies, that r,he get at the honey, thereby causing considerable destruclion to
motad,a horahan a ""b'iea_if; th""a;il"l,";ii,"!agamuw6 upann,,ta
tl yorr
beri.io*t'_.,
knew not (r,be a.rt of) srealing/.;-- ,J"'"ii.r"i
wu"t,JtiJ ..-" v^ v!r"t born at 1.,o!agamuwa, beelife. T[e pots I substituted are in two sections I the first
section or entrance n&rrow-mouthed and oblong, which fitr
 2S JoLrRNAr,, R. A. s. (cnvrox). [Yol. YiI., Pt. L
into the secoud, which is flat and deep. When the firstsection, or
mouth-piece with an opening of about 10 in. across, is taken up,
the honey-combs are easily removed without any injury to the
cornbs or to.the bees, eaving ihe brood combs intacl rvithin it.
Directly the honey-combs are removed the moulh-piece is
again re.placetl, tied fast, and placed in its proper position, when
all the bees return to it and begin to work as if they were never
disturbal. At this critical siage, ho*ever, they are fed for a
few days with jaggery and water, which is made into a thin
light syrup, and plaeed close to the rnouth of the pot in a flaf
vessel. ln this manner I hace always had a supply of hon,ey
for ht-ruse use, and occasionalll' to spare for my friends- Witf,
regard to the Englishbee-hives, I have made little or no progrese
with them. lfre beee.take to them easily, bnt it ie an effort to
I.-eep them in long, as they shew a dispocition to get out. By
continual feeding they may be regularly established in them,
' and rvhen once establishedthey keep on and build their combs
and fill the stosk hive; but I have never been successful in
inducing them to take to supers, which may be attributed to my
want of ingenuity and experience to adapt the frames to their
mode of comb-building, or to the bees preferring pots, which are
I believe cooler than the buxes.
The bees are easily moved about in combs in frame boxes, and
hence it ig my impression that they can be by competent persons
easily reared according io the European sl,stem, uod *itn
profit and advantage,
The native system of bee-keeping is very simple indeed.
They invariably sweeten the pot iatended to be used as a hive
by fumigating it with resin, and place il in a cool elerated
position, smearing the mouth of the pot with a little honey
.
during the swarming season. The wilct bees take to them
without the least trouble and begin building their combs, and
filling them. When the proper season .onl., round they break
the pots, blow into them to drive the bees aside, and abstract
l{o.23.-1881.1 BEE CULTURE. 9c}
all the honey as well as -the brood combs ; the former they
retain, and the latter are thrown away, a g"reat waste of material
and, reckless destructiou of bee-life. When the next swarnriug
season comes round, which is betweel March and April, a
fresh pot is fumigated with resin, is placetl iu the same position
for the next supply of honey, .which is obtained in July or
August. The largest supply the natives so obtain is ahout three
or four boitles of liquid honey. With regard to the wild bees
they always builil ir the crevices and hollows of rocks antl trees,
1 and, if not re'r.oyed by bee-hunter.s in proper season, they them-
I
lr'l selves consume the produce of tlreir labour, and abandon the
'
ernpty combs and betake themselves to the woods ; and it is
't
firmly believed by th'e natives, that when the swarming season
comes rountl they return to their old haunts and set to work
again.
Znil-Dandurugl (Apis n'lorea) is an unprofitable bee, pro-
drcfug very .little honey. It aftaches its solitary sdmi-cirsular
combs 9 in. by 5 in. to the branch of a tree. Its honey is
esteemed by.the natives as being cool and riice,but this species.
is notat all adapted for rearing purposes, as its produce is very
scanty.
}td.-Bambarzi iApis Dorsata) is a large bee preiiily marked
with yellow and black, and makes a large quautity of honey
varying fromtwo to three gallons. It constructs its hiveralarge
thick comb about 3| ft. by Zlft. in a peculiar shape, atiachin'g
.it to the branches of very lofty forest trees, or securing it to thl
ledges of high rocks with its two ends fasiened up, and having a
nauow opening in the middle. It is with great diffculty goi
at by bee-hunters, and onl;'by those used to such kind of work.
At the proper season three or four erperienced men start on
:
the expedition armed with knives and ropes antl a quantity
j
I of straw and other materials (for smoking and burning tue beesl.
I
. Baving reached the woods where the bees are located the
't lunters commetrce operations on a calm day. First they smoke
30 JOTIRNAL, R. A. s. (cnrr,ou). [YoJ.YII', Pt' I' i$o. 24.-r881.1 BEE CULfIIRil. 31

out the bees by a heavy fire of straw, when the bees fly high in with honeyand the rest with theirbroorl, like otherhoneybees,
the air in a straight line ; meanwhile one of the hunters cuts and kept separate. "When interfered with or disturbed, they
the hive, and lowers it down by means of a rope attached to a would buzz about one,'s ears and nostrils, but in other respects
basket, and hastens d.own iu time to avoid being stung; his they are porfectly harLless and may be easily handled.
companions, who preceded him, throw the hive into'the fire
directly it comes down, in order to burn.all the straggling bees Since writing the above I have been taken by surprise by Mr.
in the,comb, and remove away the hive at once, for the Bambara Benton, a good authority on Bee Culture. Eis visit to Kuru-
when provoked are very persistent in stinging, aud the poison n6gala is for the purpose of hunting up tle Bambar6, (Apis
is as virulent as that of a wasp. People are known to have Dorsata). A narration of his valuable experience has aforded
been stung to death by swarms of these. This is not to be me much information, and I indulge in the hope that
wondered at, considering that they go to work without any this will enable me to compete with my difficulties more
protection to their naked bodies. It is believed-and my ex- successfully in the future.
perience couoborates the belief-that they do not rebuild their
Lives in the ssme place unless a portion of the comb is left
A person of Mr. Benl,on's acLnowldgeii ability and ex-
perience would do much for Ceylon iu opening pp "a branch of
behind with the queen bee uuinjured. The honey of this bee is
industry so easily conducted antl yielding so large a retgrn,
very rich . in flavour anrl highly esteemedr and is considered an
but of which the natives are so lamentably ignorant.
uncommon luxury among the natives. It is not however so thick
as the e,ommon bee honey: I have never heard of any attempts
being made by ud,tives to domesticate them like the common
honey bee of Oeylon ; and ib is my impression that any amount
of exer[ion to domesticate them will prove fruitless. One of the
peculiar characteristics of this species is that, unlike the common
bees, theygo about gathering materials for the construction of
their hives only during the evening twilight, and myriads of
them are seen at that hour in the Mora, Kon, and' other flowering
forest trees during the season.
' 4th.-Kana Veyr.yti, (a tiny bee belonging to the Trigonr),
produces a small quantity of honey which it makes in the
'

hollows of rotten trees and crevices of rocks and clilapidated

buildings. I have seen and examined a great many of'these
combs, which are irregular in shape; they never yield more than
a tea-cupful of honev, which has a rather acid taste, antl is otly
used for medicinal purposes. Their combs are generally about
four or five inches in circumference, and the cells partially fllled