(1920) Bees in Porto Rico

8/9/2019 (1920) Bees in Porto Rico

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r'73LIBRARYANNEX


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ALBERT R. MANNLIBRARY

New York State CollegesOF

Agriculture and Home EconomicsAT

Cornell University

EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPSBEEKEEPING LIBRARY


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PORTO RICO PROGRESS. 60

^ees in Porto Rico.For W. Vl Tower, Entomologo de la Estacion Experimental de Puerto Rico.

t\/g\ R- Filippi was probably the first' per-l^lj son to import bees to Porto Rico.[li'i^^ He brought the bees to Mayaguez

and put them on an estate called"Juanita," in Las Marias district.These hives were destroyed during the

hurricane of 1899, but I am told by the peopleliving in the Las Marias district that theyoften find colonies of wild bees in caves andhollow trees that show some of the Italianmarkings. Probably these swarms originatedfrom those which escaped during the hurri-cane.

Previous to 1908 there were a few bee-keepers on the Island. Some used modemhives, while others kept their bees in boxesand barrels. Since that time there has beena noted interest shown in bee-keeping. Dur-ing the past two years the Mayaguez Stationhas supplied about 50 different parties withbees, and a very large percentage of the bee-keepers are increasing their stock, with theidea of establishing commercial apiaries.

Since taking up this work I have alwaysbeen on the lookout for bee-plants, and itseems to me that Porto Rico is well suppliedwith honey-plants, and I doubt if there aremany localities where bees would not pay.There are certain districts on the Islandwhich I consider especially fine pasturagethey are the foot-hills in range of the coffeedistricts. In Mayaguez, for example, thecoffee plantations come down within a mileof the sea. Thus an apiary located near theouter edge of the coffee belt would have twodifferent floras to work upon, i. e., the flowersof the pastures, such as small trees, shrubsand ground flowers, also the coffee and itsshade. Coffee shade produces more honeythan does the coffee itself. There are a greatnumber of shade trees used in coffee whichproduce nectar. In the lowlands guama isused almost entirely, while in the interior.

UIZAS fue Mr. Filippi la primernpersona que introdujo abejas eilPuerto Rico. Las trajo ^ Mayaguez

a una finca llamada "Juanita" en el distritode las Marias.

Estas colmenas quedaron destruidas du-rante el huracdn de 1899; pero me aseguranalgunos vecinos de las Marfas que a menudoencuentran colonias le abejas silvestres encuevas y huecos de drboles ofrecienlo carac-teres indicadores de su origen italiano. Pro-bablemente estos enjambres proceden de losque se escaparon durante el huracan.

Antes del ano 1908 eran pocas las perso-nas que se dedicaban en esta Isla A la crian-za de abejas. Algunas usaban colmenas mo-dernas, otras tenian sus abejas en cajas y ba-rriles. A partir de esa 6poca ha ido aumen-tando el interes en la crianza de abejas. Du-rante los dos arios que acaban de transcurrir,la estacion de Mayagiiez ha enviado abejas &Unas cincuenta personas, y un regular tantopor ciento de apicultores estan aumentandosus existencias con la idea de establecerapiarios comerciales.Desde que me encargue de esta obra, heestado siempre en busca de plantas apropia-

das para abejas, y soy de opini6n que PuertoRico tiene gran cantidad de plantas melife-ras, y dudo que exista una localidad en dondelas abejas no resulten un buen negocio, Con-sidero ciertos distritos de la isla como espe-cialmente recomendables por su abundan"iade plantas apropiadas; tales son las faldasde los cerros, en los sitios destinados al cul-tivo del cafe. Por ejemplo, en Mayagiiezlos plantios de cafe van en linea descendientehasta una milla de distancia del mar. Asipues, un apiario colocado cerca del extremoexterior de la zona cafetera, podria gozar delos beneflcios de dos floras, a saber las flaresde la zona de los pastos, como las de los ar-bolillos, arbustos y flores de las matas que


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guabd. The guama is by far the best honey-plant on the Island. This plant blooms fromtwo to five times a year and the bloom lastsfrom ten to fifteen days. It is not uncommonfor a good, strong hive of bees to gather fromfive to eleven pounds a day. The honey isvery light in color and resembles the cloverhoney of the North. It runs about twelvepounds to the gallon and wholesales in NewYork at about 85 to 90 cents a gallon.

There are a few wild bees on the Island,and during such seasons as we have justpassed, when there was a scarcity of orangebloom, if the planters had had plenty of beesthey would have undoubtedly fertilized allthe available blossoms and a far greater cropof fruit would have set. I have watched thebees working on the orange blossoms. Theyappear to be very fond of the flowers. Theygather both honey and pollen. They collectthe pollen in large pellets, carrying it on theirlegs, to be used in the hive as food for theyoung brood. During a heavy flow of orangehoney you can detect the odor of "naranjas"around the hives. Districts in which the cul-tivated orange is raised would not afford asgood pastures as the coffee, but I believe thatbees would be able to store sufficient honeyso that they would not have to be fed. Iffeeding was necessary, the small amount ofhoney used by them would be repaid to thegrower by the increase of his crop.

Other Honey Plants.Royal palm;cocoanut palm.The bees are

very fond of working the blossoms of thesetwo plants. Just as soon as the blossomsheath begins to open the bees are ready tostart work. So many bees work on theblossom that the buzz resembles the noisemade in swarming. , The royal palm, nodoubt, gives a great deal of honey, but noth-ing like the amount obtained from the guama,orange, or coffee. I have failed to note thatthere is ever any general bloom of these'rees. The cocoanut furnishes some honey,but not as much per tree as the royal palm.

crecen a corta distancia del suelo, y tambienlas del cafe y arboles que dan sombra a es-tos. Hay en la isla un gran ndmero de ar-boles de sombra que producen n6ctar. Enlas tierras bajas se usa casi exclusivamente elguama, mientras que en el interior se usa elguaba. El guama es la mejor planta meli-fera de la isla. Florece de dos a cinco vecesal ano y la flor dura de diez a quince dias.No es raro que una buena y nutrida colmenarecoja de cinco a diez libras diarias. La mieles de un color ligero y se parece a la miel detrebol que se obtiene en el Norte. Un galonpesa Unas doce libras y se vende al por ma-yor en Nueva York a unos ochenta y cinco 6noventa centavos el galon.Hay pocas abejas silvestres en la Isla, y

durante estaciones como la que acabamos depasar, con escasez de flores de naranjo, si losagricultores hubieran tenido gran cantidadde abejas, estas hubieran fertilizado todaslas flores disponibles, y se hubiera obtenidouna cosecha de frutas mas abundante. Heobservado el trabajo que las abejas llevan Acabo en las flores de naranjo. A ellas lesagrada mucho esta clase de flores. Recogentanto la miel como el polen, y este lo llevanen pelotitas, en sus patas, para utilizarlo enlas colmenas como alimento para sus crias.Cuando hay abundante florecimiento de na-ranjos puede percibirse el olor de las naran-jas alrededqr de las colmenas. Los distritosen los cuales se cultiva el naranjo no dan tanbuenos pastos como los del cafe; pero creoque las abejas pueden almacenar suficientecantidai de alimento y no necesitan ser ali-mentadas. Si esto ultimo fuera necesario,la cantidad pequena de miel utilizada estariamas que compensada con el aumento de la~cosecha.

Otras Plantas Meliferas.Palma real; cocotero. Las abejas sonmuy aficionadas a chupar el nectar que pro-ducen las flores de estas dos plantas. Tanpronto como parece la flor acuden a ella lasabejas a comenzar su tarea. El niimero de


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72 PORTO RICO PROGRESSThe bees, however, sesm very ready to workthe blossoms.

Moca.^This tree is used as co.Tee shade.It is an excellent honey plant; it producesgreat clusters of flowers and blossoms over avery long period. It generally blooms duringJune and July, but I have noted that the timeof blossoming varies a little in different sec-tions.

Jobo.One of the trees which must not beleft out of this list is the jobo. In 1910 itflowered twice although the writer does notknow whether this is usual. The fiowers areborne in clusters of some three or four hun-dred flowers each. Three varieties of thistree have been observed; two of them, thejobo amarillo and ciraela del pais, are workedby the bees. The former seems to be thebetter one. The most peculiar thing in re-gard to this tree is that the bees only workthe flowers early in the morning. By 9 or 10o'clock the bees are through with the blos-soms and are working some other plant, butwhile they are working these flowers they areTcry greedy. This plant, I believe, also fur-nishes a great deal of pollen.

Palo bianco.This plant is a small shruband it seems to be of some value as a honey-plant. The flowers are borne in clusters atthe point v/here the petiole of the leaves joinsthe stem, about 40 small blossoms to a clus-ter. The bloom for 1910 was in April. Thisplant is very abundant in the pastures aroundMayagiiez. The bees have been observedworking this plant while the guama was inbloom.

Grosellas.This is another one of ourhoney-plants which should be mentioned. Itis a small bush and blossoms during March.The bees work this plant in great numbers.My attention was first brought to thegrosellas by the noise of the bees workingthe blossoms. The plant loses all its leavesduring the winter months and then the blos-soms appear before the leaves.

Higuerillo.This is a forest tree and thebees work it to a great extent. It blossoms

las abejas que chupan estas flores es tal queel zumbido semeja el ruido de un enjambre.La palma real produce indudablemente mu-cha miel; pero nunca Uega a la cantidad quesuministran el guama, -el naranjo 6 el cafe-to. No he podido observar todavia una fiore-cida general de estas palmas. El cocoteroproduce alguna miel, pero no tanta por pal-ma come la producida por la palma real. Lasabejas sienten, sin embargo, especial placeren chupar estas flores.Moca.Este drbol es utilizado como som-

bra para el cafeto. Es una excelente plantamelifera, produce grandes ramos de flores, yla florecida dura mucho tiempo. Por, lo ge-neral florece durante los meses de Junio y Ju-lio; pero puede observarse alguna variacionsegtin el distrito en que ocurre.

Jobo.Uno de los arboles que no debemosomitir en esta lista es el jobo. En 1910 flo-recio dos veees, aunque el que escribe nopuede asegurar.que esto sea lo usual. Lasflores se presentan en ramos de 300 6 400.Se han estudiado tres variedades de este ar-bol, y las abejas visitan dos de ellas que son:el jobo amarillo y la ciruela del pais. EIprimero parece ser el preferido. Lo masparticular del jobo amarillo es que las abejasno visitan sus flores mas que durante las pri-meras horas de la maiiana. A las nueve 6diez de la mafiana han terminado ya su ta-rea, y marchan en busca de otras ; pero mien-tras chupan el nectar de las flores de jobo seven muy activas. Esta planta, segiin opino,produce tambien gran cantidad de polen.

Palo bianco.Esta planta es un pequefioarbusto que parece tener algun. valor comoproductor de miel. Sus F.ores nacen en ra-cimos de unas cuarenta, en el punto de uniondel peciolo y de la hoja con el tallo. En elano 1910 ocurrio la florecida en el mes deAbril. Abunda mucho esta planta en los pas-tes de Mayaguez y se ha observado que lasabejas la visitan cuando el guama esta en laPorecida.

Grosellas.Esta es otra de nuestras plan-tas meliferas que merece mencion. Es un


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74 PORTO RICO PROGRESS.over an extended period and gives the beesmuch pasture to work upon.

Guara.Very common in coffee planta-tions. Blossoms are borne in clusters thesame as mango and moca. This plant has avery long blossoniing period.Most of the honey raised in Porto Rico is

shipped to New York in barrels, but duringthe past year some apiaries have shippeStheir honey to Germany and very good priceshave been realized.

It will undoubtedly be more profitable andpractical to raise extracted honey in PortoRico, as it is very doubtful whether combhoney in one pound sections could be shipped.

Comb honey can be produced for homeconsumption, but beginners will find it mucheasier to procluce extracted honey.The production of extracted honey is not

only easier for the bee-keeper, but is muchless work for the bees, than is the raising ofhoney in one pound sections.

In making the extracted honey the comb isused over and over agdin by the bees insteadof their having to build new ones each time;as is the case in making the pound sectionsWhen the comb in the supers is filled withhoney and well capped it is taken to the ex-tracting house, uncapped, and the iioriey re-moved by the extractor. The empty comb isthen given back to the bees for them to refillwith honey, thus saving bees the labcir ofproducing new w.ax. ;

It is much easier to control the bees whenextracted honey is raised, as there is lesstendency on their part to swarm. Hori=;y israised in larger frames and the bees are notforced to so great an extent as in the pro-duction of comb honey made in small sec-tions. Bees will, not start to fill the one-pound sections until they have filled everyavailable cell in the brood chamber. Thiscramping of the brood starts the swarmingfever; if they are not watched very littlehoney is produced in the section boxes and aswarm comes off, lessening the working forceof the hive. This is not the case in the pro-

pequeiio arbusto que florece en Marzo y esmuy visitado por las abejas. El ruido da lasabejas al libar sus flores me dio a conocerque era una planta mellfera. Durante losmeses de invierno pierde todas las hojas, yluego salen las flores antes que las hojasnuevas.

Higuerillo.Las abejas visitan con ciertafrecuencia a este arbol de bosques. Su flo-recida es de larga duracion y pVesenta unvasto campo de trabajo para las abejas.Guara.Abunda mucho este arbol en lasplantaciones de cafe. Da flores en grandes

ramos como el mango y el hioca. El perio-do de florecida es de gran duracion.La mayor parte de la miel que se recoge

eh Puerto Rico se embarca para Nueva Yorkcolocandola en barriles; pero durante el anopasado algunos apiarios enviaron su miel &Alemania:, consiguiendo por' ella excelentesprecios.

Sera sin duda mas practico y provechosoproducir miel de extraccion en Puerto Rico,pues es muy dudoso que la obtenida en pa-nales y secciones de a libra pueda ser em-barcada.

La miel en panal puede producirse para elconsume local; pero los principiantes encon-traran mas facil la obtencion de la miel deextraccion.La prdduccion de esta ultima miel es tarea

tambien menos trabajosa para las abejas quela obtenida en secciones de a libra.

; En la produccion de miel de extracci6nlos panales pueden ser usaios una y otravez por las abejas sin tener que fabricarotros nuevos, como sucede cuando se tratade obtener miel en secciones de a libra.Cuando los panales de los sobrepuestos estanllenos de miel y bien operculados se llevanal departamento de extraccion, se abren y sesaca la miel valiendose del extractor. Elpanal vacio se lleva de nuevo a l,a colmenapara que las abejas vuelvan a Uenarlo demiel, ahorrandolas asi el trabajo de tenerque hacer otro nuevo.La tarea de dominar las abejas es mucho


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76 PORTO RICO PROGRESS.

duction of extracted honey, for, as soon asthere is a flow, supers are added, providedthe colony is strong and shows a tendency tostore.

It has been found that it takes from 10 to20 pounds of honey to produce a pound ofwax under ordinary conditions, but whenshook swarming is practiced, wax can be pro-duced with a considerable smaller amount ofhoney. When honey is worth from 41/2 to 7cents a pound it is more profitable to produceit than wax at 25 to 30 cents a pound.

What Bees Have Done in Porto Rico.While at the Experiment Station I had a

great many inquiries as to how much honeya good hive would produce in a year. As nofigures were available, I planned to set asideten hives and weigh the extracted honey fromthem for a number of years. This workcould not be undertaken, as there was a greatdemand for nuclei and we felt that we couldnot spare the hives for this experiment. Thehives, however, were used, each one restingon a pair of scales, and their weights weretaken morning and evening. Although thenumber of hives was limited to two, we ob-tained some very valuable data. The read-ings showed at what seasons the bees weremost active, also, what flowers produced thegreatest amount of honey. During the ninemonths past, from one of the hives was ex-tracted 470 pounds, while the other produced337. The only period when both hives werenot gathering was during the month of Sep-tember, and during this time the small hivegathered sufficient honey so that it did nothave to use any of its surplus honey. Begin-ning the latter part of February, March, Apriland May, the bees worked on the generalbloom, and it was not uncommon for them togather from one to two pounds of honey perday. July and August were good honeymonths; during these two months one of thehives gathered 203 pounds of honey.

There is a very bright future for the bee-keeper on the Island. There are no bee

mas facil cuando se produce miel de ex-traccion, pues entonces tienen alias menostendencia a formar enjambres. La miel seproduce en cuadros de mayor tamafio, y lasabsjas no tienen que trabajar tanto comocuando producen la miel en pequenas sec-ciones. Las abejas no comenzaran a llenarlas secciones de a libra hasta no haber ocupa-do todas las celdas disponibles en la cajade cria. Esta sujecion de la crla despiertaen ellas la fiebre de formar enjambres; si nose las vigila producen poca miel en las sec-ciones, y a lo mejor se forma un enjambredisminuyendo de este modo la fuerza produc-tora de la colmena. No sucede asi cuando seproduce miel por extraccion, porque tan pron-to como hay gran abundancia de miel, se aiia-den sobrepuestos, siempre que la colonia seafuerte y demuestre una actividad 6 tenden-cia a almacenar.

Se ha observaJo que paraproducir una

libra de cera se necesitan de diez a veintelibras de miel en con liciones ordinarias; pe-ro cuando se lleva a cabo la enjambracionartificial, puede obtenerse cera con menorcantidad de miel. Cuando la miel se vendede 4I/2 a 7 centavos la libra es mas prove-choso producirla, que no la cera vendida a 206 30 centavos la libra.

Lo que han hecho las abejas en Puerto Rico^Durante mi permanencia en la Estacion Ex-

perimental, muchos me pregaflitaron acerca dela cantidad de miel que una buena colmenapodria producir en un ano. Como no teniadatos a la mano, dispuse separar diez col-menas y pesar la miel extraida de las mismasdurante un cierto niimero de afios. No pudellevar a cabo este plan porque habia muchospedidos, y nos dimos cuenta de la imposibili-dad de separar las colmenas que necesitaba-mos para nuestros experimentos. Pudimos,sin embargo, utilizar dos colmenas, las cualescolocamos de modo que descansaran sobredos balanzas y pudieran ser pesadas mananay noche. Aunque el niimero de colmenasquedo reducido a dos, pudimos obtener va-


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78 PORTO RICO PROGRESS.diseases. Foul brooda much dreadeJdisease which occurs in some of the neigh-boring islands and also in the United Stateshas not been introduced into Porto Rico. Thisdisease could be introduced into Porto Ricoin old hives or nuclei, and for this reasonsection 5 of Act No. 60 was drawn up, whichreads as follows: "That no bee comb, larvae,pupae, or bees, shall be brought into PortoRico from any other place; Provided, Thatqueen bees, accompanied by not more thanthirty . (30) worker bees and without beecomb containing eggs, larvae, pupae, or bees,may be introduced therein in mailing cages,or small boxes."The bee-moth is bad only in hives which

are run down. The Italian bee is prob-ably the best strain to use, as they are moreactive and have the reputation of keepingtheir hives free from moths. They are alittle harder to handle than some of the othervarieties, but, on account of their keeping outthe bee-moth, they are the best for PortoRico.

is die only"Guaranteed Hose of Quality"that is sheer, fine and Lisle-LikeMade in 1 6 fashionable shades forWo-men, 8 colors for men. Guaranteed towear six months without darning.Men's Lisle-Like Hose,per box of six pairs, ,'

Women's Lisle-Lrlte Hose. *


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PORTO RICO PROGRESS. 79de toda polilla. Son algo mas dificiles de cion de mantenerse libre de polillas, resul-dominar que cualquiera de las otras varieda- tan las mejores para Puerto Rico,des, pero teniendo en cuenta su buena condi-

Somj Mountain Scenery.


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80 PORTO RICO PROGRESS.A Growth of Italian Lemons.

OiN the Adjuntas road, nine and a half^^ kilometers from Ponce, and welll^jj^ sheltered by high hills on all sides,

is the only grove of Italian lemons grown inPorto Rico. It is the property of VillariBrothers, of Ponce, who have 84 acres plant-ed with about 10,000 trees which theybrought grafted from Italy in 1906. Thegrove, owing to its location in the foot-hills,well-removed from dusty roads, an 1 in a coolzone which gets more moisture than couldbe obtained nearer the sea, is producingplentiful crops of the finest kind of fruit.

"If one is willing to wait five years beforegetting any returns at all," iVlr. Joseph Villa-ri says, "the production of lemons in PortoRico offers the best returns of any industrythat could be established here, not even ex-cluding the raising of sugar cane. As late asOctober in the year 1910, lemons in NewYork sold at high as $12 per box in singlelots, and have frequently averaged $7 and $8per box. For the shipment made by us thisyear we averaged about $4 per box, whichwe consider very satisfactory.

"The lemons supplied to the United Statescome principally from Italy, which sells about2,000,000 boxes a year. California is nextwith about 500,000 boxes a year. The dutyon Italian lemons is I'/i cents per pound,with 80 pounds to the box, or a total duty of$1.20 per box. The freight amounts to 30cents per box. The California lemon paysno duty, but pays 65 cents per box for freight,with refrigeration, to Chicago, and $1.15 toNew York. Everything else being egual, le-mons grown in Porto Rico have an advant-age of 85 cents per box over these grownin California, and an advantage of $1.20 periox over those grown in Italy.

"The 2,000,000 boxes of lemons whichare bought in Italy each year cost from $1.20to $2 per box where they are grown, hencetheir co^t in New York, in order to be mar-keted profitably,tould^leve|fee-uadc^$3 per

A^LGO distante de Ponce, d nueve y^^^ medio kilometres de distancia por la^^ carretera de Adjuntas y resguardada .por elevadas colinas que se levantan en to-das direcciones, se halla una hermosa plan-tacion de limones italianos, linicos en Puer-to Rico. Pertenece esta propiedad & los se-iiores Villari Hermanos, de Ponce, y se com-pone de 84 acres conteniendo 10,000 arbolesproximamente, que fueron traidos ya injer-tados desde Italia en 1906. Como la fincaesta bien localizada, al pie de las colinas, enun sitio fresco y hiimedo se produce anual-mente una esplendida cosecha de estas fru-tas exquisitas.

"Si alguien esta dispuesto a esperar cincoanos para recoger el fruto de las siemibras,"dice el Sr. Jose Villari, "el cultivo de los li-mones en esta isla ofrece rendimientos ma-yores que cualquiera atra industria, inclu-yendo la caria de azucar. En octubre de1910 se veniieron los limones en NuevaYork al precio de $12 por caja en lotes perqueiios, siendo el promedio de venta de $7y $8 por caja. El embarque Je este ario nosdio un promedio de precio de $4 por caja, ,el cual consideramos muy satisfactorio.

"Italia es la nacion que surte principal-ments de limones a los Estados Unidos, ven-diendoles proximamente 2,000,000 de cajasanualmente. Sigue despues California con500,000 cajas. Los derechos sobre los limo-nes italianos alcanzan a V/2 centavos por li-bra. Como la caja tiene 80 libras, resulta underfecho total de $1.20 por caja. El fletecuesta 30 centavos cada caja. Los limonesde California no pagan derechos, pero pagan65 centavos de fiete por caja hasta Chicagoy $1.15 hasta Nueva York."En iguadad de condiciones, los limones

que crecen en Puerto Rico tienen- i su favor85 centavos por caja sobre los que se produ-cen en California y $1.20 por caja sobre losque se cultivan en Italia.^^''Lo2;O0O^G09de cajas de Hm&nes que si*


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PhotomountPamphletBinderGaylord Bros., Inc.MakersSyracuse, N. Y.

PIT. JAM 21, 1901

sell University Library

Bees In Porto Rico.

3 1924 003 425 521

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(1920) Bees in Porto Rico