86 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



times in one day is not well-taken, as 

 the bees may be workinof with great 

 apparent vig-or, yet consume hours in 

 getting a single load. As an illustra- 

 tion, he says: "If we should send out a 

 flock of school children to pick berries, 

 they might fill their baskets very 

 quickly the first day; but, suppose that 

 on the next da}', the children from two 

 or three schools should pick over the 

 same field, then, upon the third day, 

 the children from the first school should 

 again appear upon the scene, they 

 might have to work two or three times 

 as long to fill their baskets as they did 

 the first day. It is just so with the 

 bees. ' ' 



While Mr. Strohschein's illustration 

 is a fair one in most respects, it is not 

 exactly parallel. When a berry is 

 picked, there is never another grows 

 on the same stem — it is gone forever. 

 I think it would be more appropriate 

 to compare the nectar in flowers with 

 the manna of old, which had to be 

 gathered hy a certain time of the day 

 or it was evaporated and lost. There 

 are times when the flow of nectar is so 

 rapid and abundant, that it is almost 

 impossible to get bees enough upon a 

 given area to overstock it. Some very 

 interesting experiences were given 

 upon this point at the late Michigan 

 convention. One man had an apiary 

 of 250 colonies that stored a large crop 

 of honey in a very few days, and no 

 bees were seen more than three-fourths 

 of a mile from home. Another had 

 secured a large crop with 550 colonies 

 working practically on the same 

 range. Of course, there were reports 

 of small yields of honey with both 

 large and small apiaries, but the 

 pertinent point brought out was that 

 there were times when the flow of 

 nectar is so great that it is impossible 

 to gather all of it. There are times 

 when the nectary of a blossom might 

 he compared to a well of water — as 

 often as it is pumped out, it immedi- 

 ately fills up again. 



But it must not be forgotten that 

 these times of plenty do not last 

 through a whole season — sometimes do 

 not occur at all. The general experi- 

 ence, from all over the whole country, 

 is that the yield of almost any locality 

 may be lessened by the bringing in of 

 too many colonies; but just how many 

 colonies it is profitable for one man to 

 keep in one apiary has never been 

 settled, and never will be settled, as 

 localities, seasons and methods differ. 

 My advice or plan would be to keep on 

 increasing an apiary until the profits 

 were lessened by the increase in num- 

 bers. By this I don't mean the yield 

 per colony has been lessened, as this 

 might happen, yet the yield in the 

 aggregate, and the profits, might still 

 be increased. I mean that, when, con- 

 sidering the capital and labor em- 

 ployed, we don't make so much money 

 because the locality is overstocked, 

 then I would start another apiary. It 

 may require quite a little experience 

 to decide this, and, even then, it can't 

 be decided definitely for each year; an 

 approximate decision is the best that 

 we can get. 



A. correspondent in a late issue of 

 Gleanings criticises the writing and 

 publishing of such reports as those of 

 Mr. Alexander. He thinks they are 

 misleading and likely to do harm. I 

 think they are no more likely to do 

 harm than the advice to keep not more 

 than 100 or 150 colonies in one location. 

 A man may lose by keeping too /^w bees 

 just as he may by keeping too tnanyi 

 and the publishing of the profitable 

 keeping of large numbers of colonies 

 in one apiary may lead men to experi- 

 ment and learn that they can profitably 

 keep a larger number of colonies than 

 they thought they could. 



Mr. Strohschein refers to the thous- 

 ands of acres of buckwheat in the 

 vicinity of Mr. Alexander's apiary, 

 and thinks this is the secret of his 

 success — not some new theory of nectar- 

 secretion. 



