THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



85 



ten acres of clover within one 

 mile, und the oightecn acres of 

 common timber, would do little 

 toward supporting an apiary. IJut 

 as 1 believe tluit bees lly from 

 choice, from two to four miles 

 from home, and from five to seven 

 miles wlien neccssit}' requires it, I 

 will try and tell our correspondent 

 how I would manage an apiary un- 

 der like circumstances. But first, 

 let us look for a moment into the 

 matter of how far bees fly, for most 

 peoi)le do not like to take a mere 

 assertion as [)i'()of of a reality. 

 About the year 1868, a gentleman 

 living in Marietta, a small town 

 three miles distant in a straight 

 line, purchased some Italian bees. 

 The next spring (before I had any 

 Italians or there was any near 

 here), I was watching the bees at 

 work on apple blossoms, and pres- 

 ently saw an Italian at work. 

 Upon examination, I found that the 

 average was, one bee in five were 

 Italians, and this with apple blos- 

 soms in profusion everywhere. 

 Again : in haying, that same seas- 

 on, as I was cutting a field of clo- 

 ver one mile from home, or four 

 miles from these same Italians, I 

 saw bees at work on the clover. 

 Having heard so much about Ital- 

 ian bees working on red clover, I 

 jumped of my machine, and, to my 

 surprise, counted five Italians to 

 two blacks ; with fields red with 

 clover everywhere. Then, in time 

 of basswood, I have often known 

 the bees to follow the receding 

 bloom up an elevation of ground 

 we have to the southeast of us till 

 they were at work entirely on 

 bloom five, six, and seven miles 

 from home, but at this last distance 

 (seven miles) I was not sure tliat 

 they, made much more than a living. 

 If any one still doubts, all they 

 have to do is to read the writings of 

 Mr. March, in"Gleanings"for 1882, 

 where they will find how his bees 

 worked across a strip of water, five 



and a half miles wide, and later 

 on filled their hives and gave some 

 suri)lus otf of golden-rod wliich 

 bloomed seven mihfsaway from his 

 bees. But how shall our question- 

 er work his bees so as to secure 

 good results in his locality? Ac- 

 cording to his account of it, he has 

 but about 828 acres of bee pastur- 

 age, all told, and nearly if not 

 quite all of this is white clover. 

 This will not allow of keei)ing a 

 very extensive apiaiy, without 

 overstocking his field. Thirty to 

 forty colonies would be all I should 

 expect to do well under such cir- 

 cumstances, and if rightly man- 

 aged probably twenty to twenty-five 

 would give a greater cash income 

 than a larger number. As the yield 

 is to be wholly from white clover, 

 the thing of most importance to 

 be considered is how can we get 

 a full force of bees in time for 

 the harvest. To do this, where 

 the blossoms yielding hone}' come 

 as early as does white clover, is 

 something that requires all the skill 

 that is at the command of the 

 very best of us, for it requires that 

 brood in abundance be raised 

 early in the season. Almost every- 

 thing in producing comb honey 

 hinges on this one feature. 1 can- 

 not recall a single instance when 

 my bees were in good condition, 

 when the honey harvest arrived, 

 that I did not get a fair crop of 

 honey ; but I remember that I 

 came very near a failure several 

 times, because I could not get 

 them strong for the harvest. The 

 best way to get colonies strong, 

 early, that I know of, is to confine 

 them, as soon as spring opens, on 

 just as few combs as possible, in 

 accordance with the brood they 

 have at that time. If they only 

 have brood in so few combs, that 

 in shutting them into those combs, 

 they are crowded out past the di- 

 vision-board, the prospect of success 

 is so much the better, for then you 



