AI'iilL 1. 1915 



HOW FAR DO BEES FLY? 



BY J. A. HEBERLE, B. S. 



!Mtu*li has been written about this subject. 

 Opinions differ g:i-catly, as might be expect- 

 ed, because the sohition can be only an ap- 

 jiroxiiuation. The distance varies with the 

 season, the time of day, the temperature, 

 and also with the plants that supply the 

 nectar and pollen. It is influenced by the 

 configuration of the surrounding country. 



The editor of the Western Honey Bee 

 says: " How far bees fly and store honey to 

 a profit depends on two things: First, the 

 ]dant they are to get it from; second, 

 wlietlier or not intervening plants have led 

 the bees to the field." [G^ M. Doolittle has 

 said t)ie same. — H.] He has seen the bees 

 work on mesquite where the nearest bushes 

 wore a mile and a half, and the bulk of the 

 yard seemed to be going about two miles, 

 witli tlie result tliat scales under an average 

 hive showed nine pounds gain. [That would 

 l)e a record around here. — H.] He further 

 said bees will make a good gain from a 

 good field of alfalfa a mile distant, and he 

 would count on a good deal of surplus from 

 one and a half miles. Three years ago one 

 of his neighbor had a j'ard two miles from 

 the only orchard that was sprayed, and the 

 bees canied enough ai-senate of lead from 

 the fruit-bloom at that distance to kill some 

 of the colonies outright. 



Geo. L. Emerson, in the Western Honey 

 Bee, says : " For some years we have had 

 our apiary No. 8 in a location that is over 

 six miles from an orange-orchard, but these 

 bees seem to gather orange honey as fast as 

 bees nearer the trees when the weather is 

 warm and favorable." 



J. D. Bixby. on the same subject, said 

 that he knows of an apiary in Iowa which 

 is six miles from the nearest basswood-tree, 

 and eight miles from any larger range of 

 basswood. In any j'ear that the basswood 

 has yielded nectar, this yard has stored 

 thousands of pounds of basswood honey. 

 His personal knowledge of this yard ex- 

 tends over 45 years. He observed last j'ear 

 that numbei-s of golden Italians were work- 

 ing on white sage on a 1500-foot hillto]) 

 four miles from tiie nearest j'ard containing 

 • such stock. 



Mr. Goeken, who read ray translation of 

 these items in which they say that bees 

 would fly for orange and basswood nectar 

 six to eight miles, writes in the Bw. Ctrhlatt 

 that he doubts that any bees in Germany 

 — the blacks, Carniolans, or Italians, would 

 fly that far for nectar, and added that, if 

 tliese distances (six to eight miles) are 



actually made by the bees it would be well 

 to introduce them in Germany. 



In his extended practice he found that, if 

 bees were moved, during a honey-flow, a 

 distance of one and a half to two miles, they 

 would not fly back to tlie old stand. 



According to his obsei'\'ations bees would 

 gather nectar at a distance of l^/i to l^/^ 

 miles in any direction unless they are led 

 further by an extended field of nectar-yield- 

 ing plants. He asks any German beekeeper 

 who has observed that bees gather nectar at 

 such gi'eat distances as above cited to have 

 such observations published. 



A month later Ileinrieh Theen writes in 

 the same journal that, generally speaking, 

 he agrees with Goeken that bees usually do 

 not forage much over IVi to 11/2 miles dis- 

 tant. 



About seventeen years ago he was the; 

 only beekeeper who had Italians in that-' 

 neighborhood. Seldom could he find his 

 yellow bees further than 1% niiles. How- 

 ever, his bees would visit a rape-field when 

 the weather was real fine, at a distance of 

 21/2 to 3 miles. 



At a distanx'e of 1% miles from his apiary 

 there is a heath of some 500 acres. In a 

 dr^' season considerable honey is gathered 

 b.y the bees near this field, while his bees 

 visit the field of heather very little. He can 

 find but a few cells of this honey in his 

 hives. 



BEES FLY FIVE MILES OVER WATER. 



Mr. Theen states further, that on his side 

 of the water the farmers have quit planting 

 rape, but on the other (Danish) side there 

 are still large fields of rape. From an ele- 

 vated place some little distance from his 

 side of the shore the rape-fields when in 

 bloom can be clearly seen. At a village a 

 quarter of a mile from the shore there are 

 several small apiaries ; and when the rape- 

 fields yield nectar the bees fly in large 

 inimbers across the water — a distance of 

 five miles. A few of the bees succeed in 

 returning with a load, but the most find 

 their death in the cold water. The fishei-s 

 on the water's edge say that bees often take 

 a rest on their boats when they pass the line 

 of flight of the bees. Usually the bees fly 

 very low on their return across the water, 

 and a gust of wind drowns them by the 

 hundreds. If the wind blows from the 

 opposite side, lots of dead bees are washed 

 ashore. He thinks the bees are misjudging 

 the distance across the water, else they 



