BENEFICIAL INSECTS 231 



pour forth into the orchards and do the work that the trees 

 require at this season. How manyfruit blossoms does a bee 

 visit in a minute ? I have counted a number of times, and 

 the average is about twenty per minute. How many men 

 or boys would it take to do as much of this work as a single 

 bee ? as a hive of twenty thousand ? Attempts have been 

 made to raise fruit on a large scale with no bees in the local- 

 ity, but year after year no fruit has been produced. Bees 

 were introduced, and abundant crops followed. Seasons 

 in which the weather is too cold or stormy for bees to fly 

 during fruit bloom are well known to be poor fruit years. 

 Is the neighborhood well stocked with bees .-* This is 

 the next question. Mr. Benton has estimated that there 

 are about one-tenth as many bees as the flowers of the 

 land will support, at the average profit per hive. Some 

 approximation to an answer to our question may be 

 attained by asking the pupils to collect statistics as to 

 the yield of honey per colony in the neighborhood. An 

 average yield of honey for large apiaries is from about 50 

 to 100 pounds per colony. Of course the management of 

 the bees makes a great difference in the yield, as does also 

 the season.^ A single swarm has been known to make 

 1000 pounds in a season. Bees are supposed to fly and 

 do most of their collecting within a radius of about two 

 miles, and within this circle, four miles in diameter, it is 

 commonly estimated that 200 swarms may be maintained.^ 



1 A hive has been known to gain thirty-two pounds in weight in a single 

 day during an abundant flow of linden nectar. Of course this is nectar, 

 which must be evaporated down by the bees before it is honey. 



2 Bees have been kept on an island and have been proved to fly as far 

 as seven miles to find the flowers. How well they thrived under these 

 conditions, however, is not stated. 



