1882 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



589 



cloth for a honey-boarrt. I have used them now for 

 years. L. L. Butlek, M. D. 



Los Gatos, Col., Oct. 24, 1882. 



Friend Butler, in our back volumes 1 have 

 described tin boxes to i)ut in the bottom of the 

 hives, letting the combs go down into them. 

 A lot of them are now in the loft of our old 

 honey-house. I believe I discarded them be- 

 cause they got sticky ar.d nntidy. Feeding 

 on the bottom-board, although it has many 

 advantages, 1 have always found rather stick- 

 ing business. Dead bees were plastered fast, 

 and the whole interior seemed rather untidy 

 and disagreeable. D. A. Jones, however,who 

 has had more experience than most of us, 

 l>refers it to any other plan. 



HOW FAR ^VIL.L BKES WORK TO VD- 

 \ AINTAGE? 



FRIEND MARCH TELLS US SOME MORE ABOUT IT. 



fRIEND BOOMHOWEK, in October Gleanings, 

 page 482, says, " I honestly believe, that if a 

 ' colony of bees had to depend upon g'oing seven 

 miles to obtain food, they would be exterminated in 

 less than one week." Now, if Mr. Boomhower is so 

 much of a " doubting Thomas," I can furnish him 

 the affidavit of half a dozen good men who have not- 

 ed the flight of my bees, and the direction they 

 have taken this full. A person standing in my apia- 

 ry in the evening, when the slanting rays ot the set- 

 ting sun strike across from the west, can see the 

 line of bees above the horizon as plainly as pencil 

 lines on white paper; and as the lines from the api- 

 ary run due east, and as Fidelia Bay, a sheet of wa- 

 ter 5^ ruiies across, lies due east from our island, 

 and as the bees come in loaded with pollen and hon- 

 ey from the same direction, it is but fair to presume 

 they get their loads somewhere on the east side of 

 Fidelia Bay. Now, if I can prove the 5^2 miles, I 

 think he may take my word for the rest. How 

 could they find honey that distance, and across wa- 

 ter too? Well, I suppose some adventurous spirit 

 "lit out" prospecting; and as the speed of their 

 flight is said to be 90 miles an hour, 5 minutes puts 

 him in an Eden of flowers. Now when he returns 

 loaded with golden pollen and honey, do you think, 

 when he makes his next start, there are not plenty 

 of friends to accompany him? And soon the whoie 

 apiary takes up the joyous hum and joins in line. 



As to the profitableness of these long flights, that 

 is quit" another thing. It is certainly more profita- 

 ble than to have them lying idle, and eating their 

 stores As to exterminating them, that is all non- 

 sense, as I will prove further on. 



About the 20th of July I found the bees were com- 

 mencing on goldenrod pretty lively, and most of the 

 flight was east. I took the hint from your foot- 

 notes, page 182, April numbei-, where you say, "If 

 you have goldenroil like that every year, I think it 

 would be a pretty good place for a bee-keeper to go 

 to." I took an average colony of Italians, stripped 

 them of every thing but 2 frames of brood, filled up 

 with frames of wired fdn , and put on a crate of 10 

 sections, 5x5x2, filled half full < f thin fdn. On the 

 29th of July 1 took them in my boat about 8 miles 

 up the slough, and set them in an acquaintance' 

 yard, in a perfect sea of goldenrod. Aug. 18. I had 

 business at LaUonner, and had to pass by where 

 the bees were, so I took the smoker along to see 



what they were doing. The first thing that greeted 

 my sight on arriving, was 2 gallons of bees hanging 

 on the front of the hive. Friend llodene says, *' I 

 think they are going to swarm, for they have been 

 hanging out for a week." I opened the hive and 

 foimd the four outside frames were solid full from 

 wood to wood; the four middle frames had each a 

 patch of brood and eggs about the size of my hand; 

 the rest of the comb was full of capped honey. The 

 sections were filled, and the three-eighths space be- 

 tween the crate and frames was full. Here was 

 honey "with a vengeance," and the bees lying idle, 

 for a week for the want of room. These bees could 

 find all the goldenrod bloom they could work on 

 within half a mile of the hive. The next day I ex- 

 amined the home apiary, and found them all work- 

 ing in the boxes, but it seemed like up-hill business. 

 The long distance that they wore working made it 

 slow filling up. There was no perceptible loss of 

 bees; they were as strong as they were in July when 

 working in alsike at home, and far stronger in brood 

 than those working on the flats, for they had nearly 

 run their queens out with honey. 



About the 15th of Sept. the cool nights and fog had 

 shut the honey off; I then stripp d all the hives for 

 winter. The hive that I took to the flats gave me 78 

 lbs. surplus, besides from 30 to 40 lbs. in the hive; 

 and had I attended to them the week they were ly- 

 ing idle, I should probably have got 100 lbs. surplus, 

 as the weather was fine and warm. The best swarm 

 in the home apiary gave me 18 lbs. surplus in the 

 same time (about 6 weeks). The whole apiary work- 

 ed on the same goldenrod from 5|4 to 8 miles, and 

 every liive gave some surplus, besides filling up for 

 winter. 



I think I have established one /net; that is, bees 

 will work seven or more miles. But to make it 

 X>rofitabJe, the whole apiary should be in the midst 

 of the guldenrod. II. A. March. 



Fidalgo, Whatcom Co., Wash. Territory. 



There, friend March, you have just "gone 

 and done it" again. You have given us 

 facts that we might have waited in vain for, 

 because no one else is so situated as to be 

 able to do it. I am glad friend Boomhower 

 stirred you up to the speaking-out point, but 

 1 feared you might feel hurt at his rough way 

 of puttingit. Most of ns presumed it was a 

 disadvantage for bees to go long distances 

 for their stores, but we could only guess how 

 much difference it made. You liave shown 

 us tliat there is a very great gain in having 

 the bees stand right near their supplies. My 

 basswood orchard is a mile and a half from 

 our apiary. This distance would, of course, 

 be nothing like seven miles, but still 1 pre- 

 sume they would get, say one-fourth more, 

 if located right under the trees. By the way, 

 it has been a fond project of mine for some 

 years past to put a heavy colony of Italians 

 right under a large basswood-tree in full 

 bloom, and see how much honey they would 

 get from the tree in one day. Who knows 

 Ijut we might get them to work by moonlight, 

 when so airangedV Another point you have 

 brought out is, although the bees flew over 

 seven miles of water, they did not decrease 

 in numbers greatly. Then the loss is not be- 

 cause of the loss of bees in tiying so great a 

 distance, but because of the extra muscular 

 strength required, so that they can not stand 

 it to make nearly as many journeys as they 



