^ 



^'l^ERICA^ 



fuhHsltt ^Veekly at US AfieJjfg-an Street. 



91.00 a Yeai — Samp/e Copy Freo. 



37th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., SEPTEMBER 23, 1897. 



No. 38. 





Ricltg 



How Far Do Bees Travel for Hooey ? 



BT C. P. DADANT. 



I have often read of bees Koing great distances for their 

 honey, and harvesting crops from blossoms three miles or 

 more from their apiary. AUho there is probably some truth 

 in the statements thus made, yet, for all practical purposes, I 

 believe that it is useless to depend upon their going over two 

 miles in any one direction. We have had out-apiaries, located 

 4 to 12 miles away from our home apiary, for 25 years or 

 more, and I know by the experieuce of the crops in each of 

 these apiaries that the ranges of the bees in them were en- 

 tirely different. 



We once had an apiary located on the shore of the Miss- 

 issippi river. This apiary remained in that spot for about 

 eight years, and its crop was always shorter than that of any 

 other apiary. It was about four miles north of our home, and 

 altho we knew that the vicinity of the river — which, of course, 

 cut off half of its pasture — had something to do with its scanty 

 crops, yet we disliked to remove it, because it was in a loca- 

 tion where orchards abounded and the facilities for a spring 

 harvest were good. We were for a long time under the im- 

 pression that the home apiary was helping to cut off its honey 

 supply, by its proximity, but we were well cured of this doubt 

 when we found a small apiary of 10 colonies exactly half way 

 which had harvested more surplus than eitherof our own. 



We have often, since, ascertained that localities three 

 miles apart may have altogether different crops, both in 

 quantity and quality. 



I read an article lately by one of our leading authorities, 

 in which he advises prospective bee-keepers to select their 

 location in reference to the amount of bloom, wild or culti- 

 vated. This is good advice, and yet it is not always safe to 

 depend upon present conditions to determine the future. As 

 an instance of changed conditions, unexpected, I will mention 

 what has happened in the neighborhood of an apiary which 

 we located some 20 years ago between the cities of Hamilton 

 and Warsaw, about half a mile from the Mississippi river. 



When we first placed bees ou this farm, the land was but 

 little cultivated in the neighborhood, and the bottom or low 

 lands along the river, composed of islands and overflowed 

 strips, were, in their natural condition, producing a profusion 



of fall bloom. The cultivated lands in the neighborhood were 

 largely in orchards, and the timber contained plenty of bass- 

 wood — a real Eldorado for bees. 



Within a very few years the young, thrifty orchards had 

 become much damaged by hard winters, and the low lands 

 were so closely pastured by neighboring cattle as to cease to 

 produce anything except iron-weeds and boneset, which, as 

 everybody knows, produce about the poorest grade of honey 

 that can be found. Later, the owners of the timber began to 

 cut it down, and we seriously feared that all the basswood 

 would go. The crops of this apiary had so diminisht that we 

 began to study over the necessity of removing the bees else- 

 where. But in the past three years a revolution has taken 

 place. The low lands have been put under fence and culti- 

 vated. The cattle being kept off, every nook and corner of 

 those islands that are not thoroughly overturned by the farm- 

 er's plow, now grow more and thriftier honey-plants than they 

 ever did before, and after every rise of the big river, a little 

 better harvest comes to our bees than the one before. It mat- 

 ters but little what is grown on those lands, the soil is so rich 

 that when the cows are kept off a bountiful harvest is sure to 

 come — from knotweed and Spanish-needle — and the crop of 

 this apiary is at present equal to the best we have. 



Another apiary, located only two miles east of the above, 

 yields no fall honey worth mentioning. This shows us con- 

 clusively that, whatever other people's bees may do, ours will 

 not thrive on a honey-crop source located two miles or more 

 from them. 



There is, however, a possibility of bees traveling that dis- 

 tance, or even more, if the country over which they travel is 

 not broken. We have seen our bees at work about two miles 

 from home along the valley on which we live, and we ascribe 

 it to their not having any hills to climb or heavy timber to 

 pass. Very certainly, bees will travel farthest where the 

 country is smoothest. Hancock Co., III. 



A Few Apiarian Observations and Conclusions. 



BY "BEE-STUDENT." 



Hive- Ventilation. — Complying with the editor's request 

 on page 50-1, I would like to say a word in regard to ventila- 

 tion. We are often told to raise the hive by putting blocks 

 under the corners, and, seemingly, without considering how 

 the bees are to get up into the hive. When the convenience 

 of the bees is considered, we readily see that something else 

 besides blocks is necessary, and to help them to easily get to 

 any part of the hive, I use a piece 3^x1)^x16 inches, bringing 

 one side of this piece to a bevel M inch back, and almost to a 

 featheredge, except one inch at either end, which I leave 

 square for the hive-corners to rest on ; and by putting this 

 under, about K inch back from the front, the bees can go 



