364 Beekeeping 



alfalfa and cotton may also be mentioned among the culti- 

 vated plants of value to the beekeeper. In seeking to im- 

 prove a range by changing the flora, it is often profitable to 

 scatter seed of some plant which will occupy waste land. 

 Although the appreciation of the value of sweet clover as a 

 forage plant and soil renovator is increasing among farmers, 

 it is still valuable to the beekeeper chiefly as occupying 

 waste land, crowding out less valuable plants. The scatter- 

 ing of sweet clover seed along embankments and over waste 

 land has proved so profitable to beekeepers that the seed is 

 now offered for sale annually in the bee journals.* 



Value of the minor sources. 



Those plants which, because of scarcity or limited secre- 

 tion of nectar, fail to give the beekeeper a surplus are, never- 

 theless, of marked value and are worthy of more consider- 

 ation than they usually receive. The amount of honey 

 consumed by an average colony of bees in a year has been 

 variously estimated as from 200 to 600 pounds. 1 This will, 

 of course, vary according to the locality, strength of colony 

 and other factors. Accepting even the lowest figure, it 

 is evident that a moderate sized apiary obtains tons of sugar 

 from the flowers in the surrounding territory. While nectar 

 comes in abundantly enough at times to produce a surplus, 

 the beekeeper does not leave in the hives at the close of a 

 surplus honey-flow enough to feed the bees until another 

 major honey-flow, except possibly at the close of the season. 

 The bees are almost constantly gathering nectar from the 

 minor sources during the summer and the aggregate gathered 

 from these plants is enormous. If, for example, nectar were 

 obtained in the North from white clover only, at the close 

 of the flow the beekeeper would be compelled to leave about 



1 A recent estimate is one made by Hommell (1913, [Consumption of a 

 hive of bees during the year] La Vie agricole et rurale, II, No. 22, pp. 

 653-655) in which it is concluded that an average of 480 pounds is needed, 

 divided as follows: maintenance of bees, 400 Ibs., feeding of brood, 70 

 Ibs., wax production, 10 Ibs. 



