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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



by-four-mile-belt and the seven-mile limit you 

 should charge half price for seed. Of course, there 

 might be some apiaries within the two-by-four- 

 mile belt; but as they " fly from choice from two 

 to four miles " they would fly beyond the fields 

 on which your bees were working. 



It is fifty years since I owned my first colony 

 of bees, and this talk of bees flying two to four 

 miles from choice, or seven miles from the hive, 

 is all folderol. Thos. W. Odle. 



Ridgeville, Ind., April 9. 



[Your last paragraph shows that you are not 

 poking fun so much at The A. I. Root Co. as 

 you are at our old friend Doolittle. The real 

 question at issue, then, is not whether it pays to 

 furnish alsike seed free or at half price; but as to 

 whether bees from choice fly from two to four 

 miles from home. This is a matter that depends 

 very much on locality and the honey flora. In 

 our locality (and we have no hills to speak of) 

 bees do not generally go over 1/i miles from 

 home, and most of the nectar is carried a much 

 less distance than that. We have tested this, 

 time and again, by tracing the flight of our bees 

 to outyards, and in every case but few bees went 

 beyond a mile and a half, and most of them 

 would go under a mile. 



But in a hill country, bees will fly much fur- 

 ther, particularly if there is a broad expanse of val- 

 ley between two big hills. We believe bees have 

 a sort of telescopic vision; and if, for example, 

 they can see a white patch of buckwheat two or 

 three miles away, and there is no pasturage near- 

 er, they will go to the distant field. We saw 

 that demonstrated at the apiary of the late 

 E. W. Alexander. We could easily trace the 

 bee-line flight to distant buckwheat-fields some 

 two, three, and even five miles away. Mr. Alex- 

 ander told us that he had driven over to some of 

 these distant fields just to satisfy himself, and he 

 found his bees making a bee-line to his apiary. 

 This explains why he could keep so many bees, 

 700 colonies in one yard. Mr. Doolittle lives 

 in a country very much like what we find at 

 Alexander's. 



Another thing, the aroma of a buckwheat-field 

 when in full bloom will, we believe, travel fur- 

 ther than that from any other honey-plant The 

 scent of bees is very acute. Where buckwheat 

 grows they would go further than at Medina, 

 where we have very little; yet when we take this 

 all into consideration it seems a little strong to 

 say that hees/rom choice will fly four miles. We 

 should like to hear from some of our subscribers. 

 —Ed.] 



IS THERE DANGER OF THE BEES STINGING 

 HORSES.? 



I am living on a rented lot. The man who is 

 carrying on the surrounding farm has notified 

 me that my bees must not sting his horses. He 

 is trying to make me trouble because he has been 

 reported to the humane officer for abusing his 

 horses, and he thinks me the culprit. There are 

 only a few days in the year when they work in 

 the meadow, and there has been only one day 

 when my bees troubled the men or horses that I 

 know of. I have had them three seasons. They 

 are Italians that I bought. 



Can I place my bees anywhere on this lot and 



keep within the limits of the law? This man will 

 probably be here only till November, and we'd 

 rather not move if we can keep out of trouble 

 here. I have only four colonies. I shall be 

 very much obliged to you if you will advise me. 

 Miss Genevieve C. Horsford. 

 Charlotte, Vt., April 7. 



[As a general principle we may say that you 

 have a right to put your bees anywhere on your 

 own premises so long as they do not interfere 

 with the rights of others. In the case you have 

 given, the complainant, as we understand it, has 

 sustained no serious damage; he only ajjumes 

 that his horses may be stung. He has no legit- 

 imate ground of complaint, and he can not 

 force you to move them — at least until he sustains 

 an actual damage. We would suggest putting 

 the bees in the garden about half way between 

 the barn and the highway. If you are careful to 

 allow no robbing among your bees, no one will 

 ever have a real ground for complaint. Your 

 neighbor can not force you to move the bees un- 

 der the conditions that now exist. — Ed.] 



JAPANESE OR SILVERHULL BUCKWHEAT. 



Can you inform me as to the kind of buckwheat 

 that is best for bees.? I saw an article in Glean- 

 ings about a man who raised it over by the Hud- 

 son River We have the Japanese and the silver- 

 gray. I should like to know of the man who 

 has some of the new kind to sell. 



Groton, N. Y., April 5. C. W. Pierce. 



[Some of the bee-keepers in Eastern New York 

 are beginning to abandon Japanese buckwheat, 

 and are using instead the old silverhull and gray 

 buckwheat, thinking they get actually more 

 weight of seed; and from the standpoint of bee- 

 keepers the statement has been made that more 

 honey is secured from these latter than from this 

 mammoth variety of the Japanese. We are not 

 prepared to give a definite opinion based on our 

 own experience, but we suggest that you try 

 either the silverhull or gray this year, and, if pos- 

 sible, another field of Japanese side by side. We 

 should appreciate it much if you could give us a 

 report of what you find, which report we should 

 like to publish in Gleanings. In the mean time 

 we should be glad to get the experience of others. 

 —Ed.] 



SIMPSON and spider PLANT. 



I notice in the ABC book a plant called the 

 Simpson and spider plants Would you advise 

 a new hand at the bee business to plant either of 

 these plants? I OJvn a small farm here, and am 

 trying to get started in the bee business. 



Princeton, Iowa. Cyrus Bridges. 



[While the Simpson and spider plants, spoken 

 of in the A B C of Bee Culture, are remarkable 

 for the amount of honey they will furnish, we do 

 not advise setting them out for just the nectar 

 that one would be able to secure from them. As 

 a general rule we may say that artificial pasturage 

 does not pay unless it yields some valuable prod- 

 uct aside from the honey. Alsike, buckwheat, 

 and, in fact, any of the clovers, are profitable 

 honey-plants because they yield seed, hay, or 

 both, as well as nectar. — Ed.] 



