DFCEMBER 1, 1915 



987 



A. J. Knox's apiary in winter quarters. See page 905, Nov. 1. 



crop this year. I took off over a ton of 

 choice white-clover comb lioney from forty 

 colonies of bees, spring count, besides se- 

 curing thirty colonies of increase. 



Basswood, strange to say, had absolutely 

 no nectar in its blonm here this year. But 

 white clover, alsike, and sweet clover made 

 up the deficiency. White clover was every- 

 where in evidence the entire summer, the 

 bloom continuing all through September. 



Besides a bountiful crop of surplus, the 

 late clover bloom and other nectar-tilled 

 flora, coupled with desirable nectar-gather- 

 ing weather, enabled the bees to fill the 

 liives to their capacity with the best of 

 wintering stores. 



The late warm seasonable rains have put 

 white clover: in the best possible condition 

 for wintering. 



Manawa, Wis. 



HOW FAR DO BEES FLY? 



BY F. M. BALDWIN 



This much-mooted question is often dis- 

 cussed b}' Mr. Clute and the writer. We 

 are inclined to believe that the distance a 

 bee will work from the hive is over-estimat- 

 ed. We were much interested by the light 

 Mr. Clute's observations threw on the Flor- 

 ida bee. In other climes the bee may travel 

 further afield ; but down here she is not 

 much given to long flights. But before I 

 ."^et down the observations let me say that it 

 is not wise to deduce from this anything 

 as to what bees will or will not do in other 

 sections. These observations give light, if 

 at all, on the P^lorida bee alone. 



Reference was made above to the thirty 

 colonies tliat stored mint honey. They are 

 in the midst of square miles of mint, and 

 seem to care only for mint. Less than a 

 mile north of them is a vast stretch of 

 smartweed. It comes in after mint is out 



of bloom. A flight of less than a mile would 

 have put this yard to work on it, but no 

 trace of that nectar is in the supers. 



The fields of mint run south from this 

 yard nearly three miles, and then give place 

 to a vast area of smartweed. Three-fourths 

 of a mile inside the line where tliis last 

 ))lant begins and the mint ends is yard No. 

 2 of 142 hives. Here the supers were 

 filled with smartweed honey but no trace 

 of mint — only three-fourths of a mile, but 

 no nectar gathered at that distance. 



The third yard is south of Lake Jessup 

 half a mile. Perhaps the lake is three- 

 fourths of a mile wide here. That would 

 make bees fly a mile and a quarter for the 

 smartweed that abounds on its north bank. 

 Tliis yard is in an orange and tupelo sec- 

 tion. There is plenty of honey from these 

 in the hives, but none from smartweed. 



