46 



AMERICAN BEE JOURMAL-. 



1. Yes, in case of cleared regions, and 

 knowledge of all the apiaries in the re- 

 gions, and also by seeing bees work on 

 islands of a known distance from bees. 

 2. No, certainly not, in case of islands. 

 — A. J. Cook. 



1. No, unless no other bees are kept 

 within a range of several miles. 2. The 

 long-distance ideas are largely guess- 

 work. Probably bees will not do well 

 that go further than 2 or 3 miles for 

 honey. — J. E. Pond. 



1. To make it short, I will say no. 2. 

 Years ago, when Italians first came to 

 this country, it was easy to say how far 

 they had been found from home, but of 

 late years it is a matter of "long-dis- 

 tance guessing." — H. D. Cutting. 



1. Yes ; you might sprinkle flour on 

 quite a number of bees in the field be- 

 fore night, at a long distance from your 

 apiary, and have some one watch at 

 home to see if the little "millers" came 

 home. 2. Probably many of them are. 

 — Mrs. L. Harrison. 



The distance of the flying of bees was 

 easily found by the introduction of new 

 races in the country. If you are alone 

 owning Italian bees, and find them 

 working 3 miles from your apiary, you 

 will know that bees can go so far for 

 honey, without guessing. — Dadant & 

 Son. 



1. I do not know of any other certain 

 way under ordinary circumstances. If 

 there were no bees except in one place 

 in a radius of many miles, it would be 

 easy to tell ; or if there were Italian 

 bees in only one place. When I had the 

 only Italian bees in the vicinity, they 

 were found in the mornings in great 

 number in a buckwheat field two miles 

 away. That is as far as my experience 

 goes. — M. Mahin. 



1. Yes. In many instances where the 

 bees' energies are directed across lakes 

 and marshy barren district^, rivers, etc., 

 it can be accurately determined. Several 

 years ago, my bees were actively en- 

 gaged in an easterly direction, which 

 was over a barren waste ; with some 

 curiosity I followed their course until I 

 found them on timber 3 miles distant. 

 It was honey-dew they were gathering. 

 — J. M. Hambaugh. 



1. Yes, there is often a field of buck- 

 wheat one, two or three miles away, and 

 the larger part of the bees of an apiary 

 are seen to fly in that direction. I have 

 followed them up, and several times 

 found beyond any question upon what 

 they were working. In one case it was 



a field of red clover ; in another field 

 sorrel, which furnishes a very sweet 

 pollen ; in another buckwheat. 2. Not 

 always. — G. L. Tinker. 



1. Perhaps not in a general way. 2. 

 Yes, and wild guessing at that. My ex- 

 perience of last fall, at a time when 

 there was but one plant in bloom, bear- 

 ing nectar — the white aster — convinced 

 me of what I have long suspected, that 

 bees do not go as far as many guess they 

 do in quest of honey. To know a thing, 

 and to guess at it, are two different 

 things. — G. W. Demaree. 



1. Yes, there was a time when mine 

 were the only Italians in this county. 

 Finding them seven miles from home 

 was conclusive evidence to me that at 

 times they would go that distance for 

 honey, 2. No, not when we know what 

 kind of honey our bees are gathering, 

 and that they must fly a certain number 

 of miles to reach the flowers from which 

 they are gathering. — S. I. Freeborn. 



1. Yes, there may be other ways. If 

 I had the only Italians within a possible 

 range, and found Italians in a certain 

 field within that range, I would think 

 my bees flew that distance. Marking 

 bees with different colors on different 

 days by flouring in a buckwheat field, 

 then watching to see if they returned to 

 my hives, might settle it. 2. I'm afraid 

 we don't know anything too positively 

 about it. — 0. C. Miller. 



No, sir, they are not guesses. When 

 there is no buckwheat nearer the apiary 

 than five miles, and the bees are at work 

 on buckwheat, the bees must go that 

 five miles to 'get it. H. A. March, of 

 Fidalgo, Wash., followed his bees seven 

 miles while at work on the flowers gath- 

 ering honey; and when the Italians 

 were first introduced into this locality, 

 they were found quite plentifully at 

 work on clover four miles from home, 

 with clover in profusion everywhere. — 

 G. M. Doolittle. 



In my younger days I lived by the side 

 of a lake six miles wide ; there was kept 

 about 100 colonies of bees on the north 

 shore of the lake in one place. About a 

 mile out from the north shore there was 

 a very small island, all rocks and sand, 

 nothing grew on it. I often went there 

 to fish, and I saw a great many bees 

 going back and forth across the lake to 

 work on the other side of the lake — 6 

 miles away. Of course, after getting 

 across the lake, the bees had to go more 

 or less inland to work, perhaps a mile or 

 two. — E. France. 



