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(iLEANINCJS IN BEE CULTl'RE 



May 1 



General Correspondence 



STOCKING A BEE-RANGE. 



The Problem of Overstocking; Various Causes of 

 Annual Variations and Marked Changes in the 

 Varieties and Quantity of Honey-producing 

 Flora; is a Range Overstocked When the Surplus 

 per Colony Begins to Decrease? Number of 

 Acres Necessary per Colony. 



BY OREL, L. HERSHISER. 



Continued from last issue. 



Variations due to climatic condition.s are 

 familiar to bee-keepers, as nearly all have 

 felt the elTects of drouth and excessive rain- 

 fall. We of the North have also occasional- 

 ly had our honey prospects nippetl by frost. 

 In the semi-arid regions, if there is insuffi- 

 cient precipitation in the mountains to pro- 

 vide the needed water for irrigation, there 

 results a short crop of alfalfa honey. Per- 

 haps there is no extensive region where the 

 crop of honey depends so much on rainfall 

 as do the sage ranges of California. So im- 

 portant, indeed, is rain to the California 

 apiarists, that they forcast their honey crop 

 with greater or less i)recision as soon as a 

 certain number of inches has fallen. How- 

 ever, with some of them near the coast, clouds 

 and fogs set their prognostications at naught. 



\'ariations due to the hand of man are 

 observable wherever the woodman's ax or 

 the farmer's plow-share has operated to sub- 

 due the wilderness and render the soil fer- 

 tile. In times past, excellent basswood lo- 

 cations were i)lentiful; but now, as the re- 

 sult of the ra])id and constant utilization of 

 basswood timber for lumber and other pur- 

 l)oses, good basswootl ranges are few ancl far 

 between, and the source of this excellent 

 \ariety of honey is fast disappearing. ( )ften 

 extensive areas of white clover, wild red 

 raspberry, willow-herb, and other wild flow- 

 ers appear of their own accord upon the 

 land denuded of the basswood, along with 

 other timber in the i)rocess of clearing the 

 land, and, later, alsike clover and buck- 

 wheat are cultivated, and thus, usually, is 

 there compensation for the loss of the bass- 

 wood, for the soil on which it nourished is 

 also adai)ted to the growth and development 

 of these wild i)lants and the cultivated ones 

 as well. Again, there are numerous loca- 

 tions, once good as sources of basswood hon- 

 ey, where later flourished wild flowers, and 

 clover, and buckwheat, that have diminish- 

 ed greatly in value as bee-ranges because of 

 the adoption by the husbandman of exten- 

 sive truck farming, gardening, or the grow- 

 ing of cereals or other non-honey-))roducing 

 plants as their main cro])s. On the other 

 hand, many of the best honey -])roducing 

 ranges in the semi-arid regions were worth- 

 less to the Vjee-keejjer until the hand of man 

 transformed the dry, brown, and often bar- 



ren wastes into blossoming lields of green 

 and i)uri)le. 



If alsike clo\er, ))uckwheat, or other nec- 

 tar-yielding plant is fouiul to he one of the 

 main crops of a locality, this fact is signifi- 

 cant as indicating that soil and climate are 

 especially adapted to its i)erfecl growth and 

 develoi)ment, and hence, acre for acre, such 

 a location is more valuable as a bee-range 

 than one where mixed agriculture is the 

 rule. 



Such variations as are due to the absence 

 of uniformity in climatic conditions have 

 comi)aratively little bearing on the proper 

 stocking of a location, as we soon learn Viy 

 observation and experience, and by consul- 

 tation of the records of the weather service, 

 what we may expect in the a\ erage season. 



Those variations and changes that are due 

 to the hand of man have a marked bearing 

 on i)roper stocking; and if we would main- 

 tain the proper and most protitaVjle ratio of 

 bees to forage, readjustment of the number 

 of colonies to the j^nount of flora will some- 

 times, be required. 



Measuring the area of some varieties of 

 honey-producing-jilants by the acre is at- 

 tended with some difficulty. Basswood- 

 trees, as a rule, occupy only a part of the 

 s})ace in the forest, the rest being occupied 

 by other varieties of trees. Much of the 

 goldenrod is found ak)ng fence-rows and in 

 isolated bunches of greater or less area on 

 unoccupied lands. White and sweet clover 

 behave in a similar manner, occupying only 

 such soils as are peculiarly adapted to their 

 growth, and the same is true generally of 

 all plants that flourish in the wild state. 

 Necessarily the number of normal acres of 

 such nectar-yielding jjlants on a bee-range 

 (that is to say, the number of acres there 

 would be if each variety grew on as small 

 an area as possible and produced a vigorous 

 growth and luxuriant bloom) can only lie 

 estimated. 



. The blossoming surface of plants that 

 have a bush or shrub like habit is greater, 

 by reason of its vertical extension than 

 plants the bloom of which is s])read out in a 

 comparatively thin horizontal layer. This 

 is true in a more marked degree of trees 

 with si)reading tops such as tlie basswood 

 and ai)ple, and esi)ecially where the grow- 

 ing areas are not crowded. (Jenerally the 

 blossoming area of ])lan1s dejiends upon the 

 surface that is exjKised t(t light aiul sun; and 

 if plants grow thickly they will have a small A 

 blossoming surface, and ricr rn-fia. M 



It would seem that the matter of properly 

 stocking a location is not so complex after 

 all but that it may be accomjilished within 

 such limits as will leave a nuirgin of inac- 

 curacy sufficiently narrow as to be of small 

 financial consequence. 



As the result of the testimony of some of 

 our brothers of the craft, and of my person- 

 al exi)erience and observations, I should 

 feel that I was fairly near the right i)oint in 

 stocking the location according to the fol- 

 lowing rules: 



1. AVherever soil and climate are adapted 



