1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



309 



THE CONTROL OF BEE TERRITORY. 



Has a Bee-keeper a Moral Right to 

 Bee- pasturage? 



BY J. L. BYER. 



his 



It is so seldom that our good friend Dr. Miller 

 says any thing that we can disagree with, that, 

 when we do get a chance, we never like to let the 

 opportunity pass by. For some time I have been 

 prompted to take issue with him on the question 

 of a bee-keeper having legal control of a given 

 territory, and that Straw on page 1423, Dec. 1, 

 1908, brought the matter to a climax. Before pro- 

 ceding further, let me say that with him I fully 

 agree with friend Hutchinson when the latter 

 says, "The man who will crowd in upon the ter- 

 ritory of another should be looked upon as little 

 better than a thief. " Having said so much, it 

 now rests upon me to explain my seemingly par- 

 adoxical views. So far as sparsely settled com- 

 munities are concerned, i. e. , sections which, on 

 account of the nature of the land, forbid any 

 chance of ever being intensively farmed, there 

 may be room for argument. Among these lo- 

 calities might be mentioned some parts of Aus- 

 tralia; and on our own continent, the mountain- 

 ous sections of the country where bee-keeping is 

 carried on, such as the sage districts of Califor- 

 nia. Possibly the sandy lands of Michigan and 

 other places where the raspberry grows in profu- 

 sion might come under this list as well, as I un- 

 derstand much of this land will never be fit for 

 farming. While I have my doubts as to any one 

 having a moral right, to say nothing of a legal 

 right, to determine who shall or who shall not 

 keep bees in a territory, even under conditions as 

 outlined, I shall not argue that point, but, rath- 

 er, confine my remarks to the question as it af- 

 fects Dr. Miller, myself, and a great host of bee- 

 keepers who keep bees which pasture upon for- 

 age raised in the main by the farmers around us. 

 As I am more familiar with conditions as they 

 affect myself, I shall use such conditions to illus- 

 trate the reasons that cause me to take views on 

 the question different from those entertained by 

 Dr. Miller. 



My apiaries are all situated in rich farming 

 communities, where one of the main crops is the 

 raising of alsike clover for seed. This alsike is 

 our main source of honey; in fact, if there were 

 no alsike raised we would have to move our bees 

 if we wished to continue in the business, as not 

 more than one year in ten do we get surplus from 

 any other source. As an exception to this state- 

 ment I would say that in the past four years we 

 have had a little surplus from the buckwheat; 

 but as this crop yields nectar very sparingly on 

 our strong soils, it is of little account to the bee- 

 keeper. 



Now, no one can dispute the point that the 

 farmers who raise the clover have the first right 

 to the nectar the clover produces, and it quite 

 often happens that some of these farmers take a 

 notion to keep bees so as to secure some of this 

 honey for their own profit. Naturally they are 

 not likely to consult .\Ir. Specialist Bee-keeper, 

 who lives on a lot near them, even if his bees 

 have had the exclusive use (not rights) of their 

 clover-fields. These things have happened and 

 are happening all the time, and I know of cases 



where some of these same farmers have become 

 successful bee-keepers and have large apiaries 

 right near specialist bee-keepers. 



Suppose a law were in force giving me control 

 of a territory five miles or more square, and some 

 of my neighbor farmers who are raising the clo- 

 ver should take a notion to keep bees to secure 

 the honey from this clover (raised on their own 

 property), wouldn't I cut a nice figure if I tried 

 to enforce that law.? Honestly, doctor, do you 

 think that I would have a moral right to do so, 

 to say nothing of a legal right.? No doubt Dr. 

 Miller has more in mind, the thought of one 

 specialist moving into the territory already occu- 

 pied by another specialist; and, as already inti- 

 mated, I agree that there is a moral wrong in 

 such an action; but where are we to draw the 

 line when it comes to having legislation on the 

 matter.? Any such legislation would be sure to 

 be abused, and be the cause of any amount of 

 friction and hard feelings. 



As to the action of one bee-keeper moving into 

 an already stocked locality for the sole purpose 

 of keeping bees, that party is a fool as well as a 

 rogue; for if he is the means of overstocking a 

 locality it spells financial failure to himself as 

 well as to his neighbor. Fortunately, examples 

 of this kind are quite rare — at least in " our local- 

 ity," and there seems to be an unwritten law or 

 code of honor (call it what you wish) among bee- 

 keepers that forbids the practice becoming com- 

 mon. 



Right here comes in the thought as to what 

 constitutes overstocking; and I have known bee- 

 keepers to complain of being encroached upon, 

 when other bee-keepers, disinterested parties, 

 claimed that there was no overstocking by the 

 second party coming on the scene. However, it 

 is wise on the part of a bee-keeper seeking a new 

 location to err on the safe side when deciding on 

 a matter of this kind, and not give any possible 

 cause for complaint. 



The late Mr. Alexander held the view that the 

 bee-keeping of the future would be almost ex- 

 clusively in the hands of specialists; and if this 

 is the case the matter of having control of terri- 

 tory would be somewhat simplified. However, 

 that view is, in my estimation, extremely vision- 

 ary, as I believe that professional men and others 

 will continue to keep bees for recreation, if for 

 no other reason; and there is no question that 

 large numbers of farmers and others will, in the 

 future, as in the past, continue to keep a few bees 

 to provide enough honey for their own table. 

 Would the advocates of legal control of bee- pas- 

 turage stop all these men trom keeping bees en- 

 tirely, or would they limit them to half a dozen 

 colonies.? If the latter course were decided upon, 

 some day when the bees got to swarming freely 

 our amateur bee-keepers would find themselves 

 open to prosecution before they knew where they 

 were at. 



In conclusion, the question of legal control of 

 territory for a bee-keeper in thickly settled com- 

 munities is, in my estimation, an idea that a 

 democratic people would never countenance. 

 While I am open to conviction on the matter, 

 yet I frankly admit that to my mind the question 

 is surrounded with insurmountable difficulties, 

 and I do not believe that the bee-keepers will ex- 

 ercise such arbitrary powers in my time. As the 



