THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



My bees covered this whole field, which 

 took them away from home somewhere 

 between eij^hl and n'ne miles. All the 

 Italian bees in this County at that time 

 were around in my immediate vicinity, 

 and Italian bees were just as plentiful at 

 the extreme end, as at the nearest point. 



My crop of honey was 5,000 lbs. of 

 nice, white comb honey, all in five-lb. 

 glass boxes, and sold to M. Quinby for 

 25 cts. a pound. 



This was the first and only time that I 

 have ever got pure celandine honey; for 

 the reason, there was nothing else this 

 time for them to mix with it. 



I am located in what may be called a 

 level country for six or eight miles all 

 around me; so that basswood comes into 

 bloom so nearly all at one time that it 

 lasts only ten or fifteen da3-s as a rule; 

 but, south of me, eight miles from home, 

 the land becomes so much higher, and 

 continues to rise as it goes toward the 

 Adirondack mountains, so that the bass- 

 wood does not come into bloom there un- 

 til just about the time that it goes out of 

 bloom in my vicinity; and my bees al- 

 ways follow up the bloom, and work on 

 for a week or more after there is nothing 

 but seed balls left on the trees near here. 



They have to go eight miles, in the di- 

 rection they take, before they reach the 

 woods; and how far they go into the 

 wocJds I do not know. 



The only seasons they do not go there 

 when basswood blooms, is when there is 

 a frost in that high altitude in the .spring 

 that kills the buds. 



There is one thing that I never could 

 understand. When bees are working 

 such a long distance, they carry just as 

 sirong a gait as when they are supposed 

 to be gathering honey near their home; 

 but I think they must send out a larger 

 force, for surely they must use a good 

 deal of time in making these long trips. 



In the spring of 1S97, about tb.e mid- 

 dle of May, there was a frost here that 

 killed all the basswood buds on all of the 

 low land, for a distance of eight miles all 

 around me, and also on the high land 



south of my place, that I have mentioned 

 above, but east of my place is a high 

 range of land called Waterman hill, where 

 snow can be seen, fall and spring, lying 

 there for days at a time, while the weather 

 is warm, and there is no snovv at all on 

 the low hind between my place and this 

 high range. With the use of a good 

 glass, this high range can be plainly seen 

 from my place any time, and, when the 

 snow is on, the white line is plainly seen 

 by the naked eye, lying up there, above 

 all the trees between my place and this 

 high range. 



All the comb honey that I got in 1897 

 was basswood (3000 lbs.) brought from 

 this high range, ten miles away. I had 

 150 colonies in the yard, and, in going 

 and coming, the bees did not occupy 

 more space than an ordinary swarm 

 would in decamping for the woods; and 

 they could be seen and heard miles from 

 home, all in a line, the same as they were 

 fifty rods from their hives. 



Bees appear to prefer to go a long dis- 

 tance to gather honey, when there is 

 plenty near by. When five miles from 

 home, I have seen my bees, near night, 

 coming home by the thousands from work- 

 ing on alsike clover, when there was a 

 perfect sea of alsike clover blossoming on 

 my own farm and all of the farms joining 

 me; and scarcely a bee to be seen — one 

 would have to watch and listen quite a 

 while to see one. 



In the honey season the onl}- time that 

 I can get away from home is near night; 

 and, in passing, on my way, between 

 four and five miles away from home, a 

 valley one-half mile wide, on the west 

 side of the road, when the sun is getting 

 low, every atom in the air can be plainly 

 seen, and here is where I have seen my 

 bees continually passing me as I am 

 driving along. There could be no mis- 

 take about their being mine as there were 

 no other bees on the road. 



Again, I have seen basswood blossoms 

 fairlv afloat with nectar right in my bee- 

 yard, with colonies right under the 

 branches, and remain there all day with 



