Beeswax

Profit in Honey and Beeswax

By H. C. Reed, Apia

YOUR contributor, Mr. F. J. Morgan, has written a very timely article on the value of bees. Realizing that but few people are conversant with the many uses and the commercial value of beeswax I append some additional comments.

First, there exist in many of the larger islands of the Pacific, in the wild state, abundant quantities of both good yellow honey, and the comb-wax. But this is

not; the product of the small, stingless.

Tngona bee, mentioned by Mr. Morgan as obtaining through New Guinea and the entire tropic-belt. This useful insect builds a round, ball-like comb, filled with excellent honey, yet ©Hording but little wax.

It is the Italian bees, and their “hy brids , which have largely escaped from the hives of beekeepers when “swarming” and have taken up their abode in the tops of coconut palms, hollow trees, and in rocky caves, which give the beeswax In some of the caves of the islands around New Caledonia, great quantities of honey and wax can be obtained. This writer collected 12 benzine-tins of honey and rendered 80 pounds of wax, from the enormous wild colonies of bees, which had built combs in sections, like so many organ-pipes hanging from the roof of a cave.

In Western Samoa alone, the writer could easily collect a ton of wax; but this needs experience. As a qualified apiarist, speaking of beekeeping for pro fit in the Pacific Islands, 1 would com mend this as a really profitable hobby, to anyone living where the coconut palm grows. Italian bees will thrive anywhere that the coconut tree abounds. These palms are continuously in flower, and afford considerable nectar for the bees, apart from other sources of honey-flora.

WHILE it is not possible to give direc tions for installing a hive of bees, in this brief account, it may said that, with the aid of a small textbook on beekeeping, a standard hive and a “nucleus”, or small swarm of imported Italian bees, anyone in the Islands can start beekeeping as' a very pleasant, and interesting sideline.

Honey can take the place of sugar for tea and coffee, jams and jellies, honey mead and wines, beer and ginger-beer, vinegar-making; ices; puddings and cakes; confectionery; brown bread making; soaps and sauces; and, in fact, every kind of preserve that is intended for long keeping.

What quantity of honey can be ex pected from a single hive? It can be said that a single frame (not section), filled with honey, may yield up to seven pounds of pure honey, apart from the wax. This is the writer’s actual experience in Samoa, where from 60 to 70 pounds of honey was extracted, by machine, from each hive of a “brood-chamber” and four “supers”.

It may be said that there is no winter, or cold season, in the Islands, and there fore the honey-bee works non-stop throughout the year. But the honey only comes in, in real quantity, during what is called the “honey-flow”. This amounts to the dry period, when the jungle-trees come into flower, prior to the rainy season.

If a single hive is well populated with a good queen bee, and a swarm of or dinary hybrid-bees, as generally found in the Pacific Islands —a “swarm” is really the most practical commencement for the beginner the “swarm” can be accom modated in a benzine-case, pending removal to the proper frame-hive.

Never tackle bees without providing a piece of mosquito-net to cover a broad brimmed hat. This should be tucked in side one’s coat. But bees can be quite easily handled, when one knows how to handle them, and without any sting.