OVERSTOCKING. 



324 



OVERSTOCKING. 



great niouiitaius on either side, the fertile 

 valley, and the great abundance of honey 

 flora, make such a number i)ossible. See 

 Apiaries. 



OVERSTOCKING AND PRlOIilTV RIGHTS. 



A new phase of overstocking has been de- 

 veloping within recent years, bringing up a 

 rather difficult and serious problem. In 

 good localities such as, for examj)le, the irri- 

 gated regions of Colorado, the keeping of 

 bees is much more profitable, or at least 

 once was, than in ^ome of the less favored 

 localities in the central and northern States 

 of the Union. It has come to pass that, in 

 recent years, certain bee-keepers, learning 

 of the wonderful yields in Colorado, in the 

 irrigated alfalfa regions, have started api- 

 aries within less than a mile of some other 

 bee-keeper having 100 or 200 colonies in that 

 locality. When the new comer establishes an- 

 other apiary of 100 colonies, the place be- 

 c(mies overstocked, with the result that bee- 

 keeper No. 1 has his average per colony cut 

 down very materially. There is only a cer- 

 tain amount of nectar in the field to be gath- 

 ered ; and if all the colonies get a propor- 

 tionate share, then bee-keeper No. 2 prac- 

 tically robs bee-keeper No. 1 of a large 

 percent ige of honey that he would liave 

 obtained had not other bees been brought 

 into the locality to divide the spoils. 

 But there is no law against such a pro- 

 cedure, the only protection that the origi- 

 nal squatter has being an unwritten moral 

 law that is observed among the better class 

 of bee-keepers, to the effect that no bee- 

 keeper should locate an apiary so close to 



another as to rob him of a certain amount 

 of nectar in the field which is his by prior- 

 ity of location. In a good many localities 

 in Colorado, we are sorry to say that this un- 

 written moral law is only loosely observed. 

 Locations that once afforded an average of 

 100 or 150 pounds per colony now afford, 

 owing to this species of overstocking, only 

 about 50 or 75 pounds. 



For the other side, on this question of pri- 

 ority of right it may be said that the first- 

 comer bee-keeper has in no sense leased, 

 bought, or borrowed the land growing the 

 plants from which the nectar is secreted ; 

 that any and every one has a right to the 

 product from the flowers. Legally the sec- 

 ond comer has just as much right to the field 

 as his neighbor. 



We will not attempt to define moral 

 distinctions which may be involved in 

 this question, any more than to state that, 

 if a bee-keeper has by luck, careful observa- 

 tion, or at great expense, discovered a local- 

 ity that yields large amounts of honey, he 

 ought to be left in the peaceful enjoyment 

 and free possession of his discovery, to the 

 extent that no one else should locate an 

 apiary nearer than a mile and a half from 

 any of his apiaries ; and right here it seems 

 to us the principle of the golden rule ought 

 to be used to settle such little problems ; for 

 it is practically certain that bee-keeper No. 

 2, who comes into an already occupied field 

 to divide the profits, would not regard with 

 very much favor such action on the part of 

 another if he were in the position of the one 

 having prior rights. 



