584 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



young. Under conditions where the food 

 Is scarce and the question Is one of suffi- 

 ciency for the life of the colony, this 

 habit enables the colony to survive where 

 others would die. Viewed from the stand- 

 point of the class, the killing of the 

 drones or males is unmerciful and un- 

 just; but viewed from consideration of 

 the good of the colony as a whole, the 

 action is justified. 



Ob.iection to Bees in Orchards 

 An objection urged is that they carry 

 blight from tree to tree. This is doubt- 

 less true, but the remedy here is, to cut 

 out the blight. I do not conceive it pos- 

 sible to fertilize the flowers without bees, 

 or some other insects which do the work 

 of bees, even though it be true that they 

 are carriers of blight. Some of our best 

 orchardists think that there should be a 

 colony of bees for every 50 trees in an 

 orchard, while others think one colony 

 for 100 trees is sufficient. 



Granville Lowther 



BEE KEEPING 



Prank Benton 



In Charge of ApicuUural Investigations 



United i^tates Department of Agriculture 



Locations Suited to the Keeping of Bees 



It may be safely said that any place 

 where farming, gardening, or fruit rais- 

 ing can be successfully followed is adapt- 

 ed to the profitable keeping of bees — in a 

 limited way at least, if not extensively. 

 Many of these localities will support ex- 

 tensive apiaries. In addition to this there 

 are, within the borders of the United 

 States, thousands of good locations for 

 the apiarist — forest, prairie, swamp and 

 mountain regions — where agriculture has 

 as yet not gained a foothold, either be- 

 cause of remoteness from markets or the 

 uninviting character of soil or climate. 

 This pursuit may also be followed in or 

 near towns and, to a limited extent, in 

 large cities. It even happens in some in- 

 stances that bees in cities or towns find 

 more abundant pasturage than in coun- 

 try locations which are considered fair. 



The danger of overstocking a given 

 locality is very frequently exaggerated. 

 Each range, it is self-evident, has a limit. 

 The writer is, however, fully convinced, 



after long experience in numerous locali- 

 ties and under the most varied circum- 

 stances, that three or four times as many 

 colonies as are commonly considered suf- 

 ficient to stock a given range may usually 

 be kept with a relative degree of profit. 

 But to secure such results sufficient care 

 and close observation have too frequently 

 not been given in the selection of bees 

 adapted to the locality and conditions. 



The Returns to Be Expected from an 

 Apiary 



Aside from the pleasure to be derived 

 from the study of these interesting crea- 

 tures, what returns can one who is well 

 adapted to such work expect to derive? 



A moderate estimate for a fairly good 

 locality would be 35 to 40 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey or 25 pounds of comb honey 

 per colony. This presupposes good win- 

 tering and an average season. By locat- 

 ing in some section particularly favor- 

 able to apiculture — that is, near large 

 linden forests, with clover fields within 

 range, supplemented by buckwheat; or in 

 a section where alfalfa is raised for seed; 

 where mesquite, California sages and 

 wild buckwheat abound; where man- 

 grove, palmettoes and titi, or where 

 sourwood, tuliptree, and asters are 

 plentiful — these returns may frequently 

 be doubled or trebled. But these favored 

 locations, like all others, are also subject 

 to reverses — the result of droughts, great 

 wet, freezes which kill back the bee pas- 

 turage, etc. On the whole, there should 

 be expected from the raising of bees for 

 any purpose whatever only fair pay for 

 one's time, good interest on the money 

 invested, and a sufficient margin to cover 

 contingencies. With no greater expecta- 

 tions from it than this, and where intel- 

 ligence directs the work, apiculture will 

 be found, in the long run, to rank among 

 the best and safest of rural industries. 



The value of bees in the pollination of 

 various fruit and seed crops is often suffi- 

 cient reason to warrant the keeping of a 

 small apiary, even if circumstances do 

 not favor its management in such a man- 

 ner as to secure the largest possible crops 

 of honey or to insure the saving of all 

 swarms. 



