THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



73 



is a very important one; as the distance 

 that bees will ^o to gather honey has 

 considerable bearing upon the mat- 

 ter of overstocking; and in deciding the 

 distance apart that large apiaries should 

 be located. WhatlNIr. IJarbersays is very 

 important: for he cites instances of bees 

 going much farther, I believe, than has 

 ever before been noted and puijlished; 

 although Mr. Doolittle has described how 

 sections were filled, as if by magic, when 

 the honey was secured from five or more 

 miles away On the other hand, how- 

 ever, Mr. Dadant, in the American Bee 

 Journal, some time ago, argued, and 

 cited instances to prove, that bees would 

 go only about three miles for forage. Mr. 

 E. R. Root has, in Gleanings, told how 

 it was necessary to move colonies to their 

 basswood grove; which is, if I remember 

 right, o,nly about three miles away; so, ac- 

 cording to two of the wise men of the 

 East, and two of the most practical men 

 of the Middle States, it looks as though 

 bees in the East will gather hone}' from 

 much greater distances than they will 

 farther West. .\11 that I can say, from 

 positive knowledge on the subject, is 

 that I have had bees profitably gather 

 honey from a little over three miles away; 

 but a bee keeper with whom I am ac- 

 quainted, and whose veracity can not be 

 questioned, tells me that, for a number of 

 years, he had an apiary located four and 

 one-half miles from the nearest basswood, 

 and that in good seasons large crops were 

 secured from this source; on an average 

 fully as much as a bee-keeping friend of 

 his got who lived right in among the bass- 

 woods. Of course, the management, 

 or difTerence in colonies, might account 

 for this; as it scarcely seems possible that 

 bees four or five miles away could store 

 as much as those right amidst the bloom. 

 It is true that bees fly (juite rapidly on a 

 .?//// day; but the wind seems to have as 

 much effect upon them as it does, for in- 

 stance, upon a person on a bicycle. I 

 have often observed loaded bees beating 

 their way in against a stiff wind, api)a- 

 rently not going much faster than a man 



could walk. Mr. Dadant and some others 

 have said that bees located in a valley 

 will seldom cross over into another valley 

 two or three miles distant. For some 

 reason, this will not apply here. For 

 a number of years I had a large apiary 

 located in a valley which extends nearly 

 North and South. Along the hills and 

 ravines oti the West side was considerable 

 basswood. About two miles West is an- 

 other valley running parallel, having 

 i/iore ba.sswoodon its side hills than there 

 was on the sides of the valley where the 

 bees were located, but the bees thought 

 nothing of crossing over to the distant 

 valley; in fact, they seemed to prefer to 

 go over there. The first year that I loca- 

 ted this apiar}^, was a good basswood sea- 

 son; and although basswood honey was 

 being brought in very rapidly, I was un- 

 able to see many bees on the trees in their 

 own valley. Trees white with bloom, in 

 which. the honey fairly glistened, would 

 not have a dozen bees on them, while in 

 the second valley the bass woods were 

 alive with bees. The bees also ranged 

 freely up and down this second valley for 

 fall forage, of which there was more than 

 in their own valley. 



Wliat Mr. Barber said about bees flying 

 close together leads me to relate a still 

 more curious incident, in this respect, 

 that I once witnessed in relation to the 

 apiary just mentioned. In order to reach 

 this second valley the bees had to cross a 

 pretty high hill, to tlie West, which was 

 mostly timbered except in one place. 

 One day, during a basswood flow, a man 

 who had crossed the hill at this open place 

 stopped and told me there was an im- 

 mense swarm crossing the hill, and head- 

 ing towards the yard. He said the bees 

 were flying low on the hilltop, but rose 

 as they psssed it, or, rather, as the land 

 descended, it left them so high in the air 

 that he was unable to follow them. He 

 wanted me to go up and see them. I 

 told him they would be gone before we 

 could get there, but he thought not, as he 

 said he had watched them for half an 

 hour, and there seemed no end to them. 



