44 



GLEANmGS I^ BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



Now, I don't know that any oue claims to know i 

 anj- thing positive in this matter; but it may do no 

 harm to do a little estimating. Let us sec how 

 many colonies there will be to the square mile, on 

 the assumption that 125 is the limit, for greatest ; 

 profit, in one apiary, and that three miles is the 

 jiroper distance between ajtiaries. There is some 

 reason for this assumption, in the actual practice 

 of bee-keepers who keep a number of apiaries. 

 This would allow for each 125 colonies a hexagon 

 with a diameter of 3 miles and an area of 7.8 miles, 

 or about 16 to the square mile. I confess I had nev- 

 er thought before of such a small number; and it is 

 possible that I am all wrong somewhere, and shall 

 be glad to have any inaccuracy pointed out. I 

 think, however, friend Porter, tliat you will find 16 

 nearer the truth than 101 0. 



If we crowd the ground much more, and put 150 

 colonies in each apiary, the ai)iaries being 2 miles 

 apart instead of 3, we then get 43 colonies to the 

 square mile. 



To get 1000 colonies to the square mile, if our pre- 

 vious figuring is correct, we need to locate our a])ia- 

 ries one mile apart and put 8615 colonies in each. I 

 think hardlj' any one believes that much surplus 

 would be secured in such a case. 



It would be of interest to learn what is the great- 

 est number of colonies in one apiary that has 

 been found profitable. Does any one know of 

 more than l.jO? Or, to put another question, what 

 is the largest number of colonies that any bee- 

 keeper has kept in one apiary for a series of years? 

 At one time, if I remember rightly, D. D. Palmer 

 said he would keep 400 colonies in one ajiiary the 

 following season, and I watched with great interest 

 to see how ho would succeed; but before he had the 

 chance to increase to that number, if 1 am not mis- 

 taken, he lost all his bees in wintering. 



The able editor of the British Bee Journal divulg- 

 ed a very interesting bit of information with regard 

 to that successful but e.xtremely reticent bee-keep- 

 er, Capt. Hetherington. The captain has 3700 colo- 

 nies in 20 different apiaries, within a radius of 12 

 miles, at distances of two or three miles apart. This 

 gives an average of 135 colonies in each apiary. 

 There is an apparent discrepancy between the two 

 statements, that the apiaries are two or three miles 

 apart, and that the furthest is 12 miles from home. 

 If 19 apiaries are planted in hexagonal form at a dis- 

 tance of 2'/^ miles apai t, the furthest from the cen- 

 ter will be just 5 miles instead of 12. But we might 

 expect that the inconvenience of roads, the difficul- 

 ty of finding the best locations, and perhaps the 

 difference in pasturage, would make great irregular- 

 ity in planting. The probability is, that some of the 

 outside ones are much less than 12 miles from home, 

 perhaps no one so far in a hec-Une, and that a good 

 many are more than two or three miles apart. If 

 we compromise the matter, and say the average is 

 4 miles apart, and the furthest 8 miles from home, 

 we get a little more than 9 colonies per square mile. 

 Even if Capt. Hetherington should place his apia- 

 ries 2i4 miles apart he would have only about 25 col- 

 onies to the square mile. 



Now, if the friends will report the largest num- 

 bers that have been profitably kept in one aj)iary in 

 different localities, it will be a little help in the 

 problem. C.C.Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



Friend M., I was pretty sure we were a 

 good deal mixed up in this matter about 



the number of colonies that can be kept on 

 a square mile ; but I think we can very 

 easily find out how^ many colonies can be 

 kept profitably in a single apiary. Will 

 those who have had experience with from, 

 say, 150 colonies or more in one locality, for 

 the production of honey, please tell us about 

 itV It does not make any difference how 

 many years ago. Who remembers of hav- 

 ing a large yield wiiere he had as many or 

 more than the number mentioned, in "one 

 locality? Can't somebody in Capt. Ilether- 

 ington's locality give us something more 

 definite than what we have had from hear- 

 say? And, by the way, I tliink we have 

 subscribers enough in Europe to tell us 

 about these localities where great numbers 

 of colonies are kept on small areas. .Now, 

 although I have said so much in discourage- 

 ment of honey-farms, I feel quite sure we 

 could easily tix a square mile so it w^ould 

 yield more honey than lias ever yet been 

 produced by nature on a single square mile 

 on the face of the earth ; and 1 think, too, 

 we might do it by I'aising buckwlieat, rape, 

 alsike, and mammoth clover, so that we 

 should get our pay in other directions if we 

 did not for honey alone. But it wants about 

 a square mile to do very much at the busi- 

 ness. It may not be necessary to own the 

 wdiole square mile, providing the one who 

 has 150 colonies could control the crops 

 raised within, say, half a mile of him in eve- 

 ry direction. If you want to make a square 

 mile, make it a little more than half a mile 

 from the apiary ; or let any bee-keeper with 

 the above number of colonies pay the farm- 

 ers around him a sufficient sum to induce 

 him to cover his land with crops bearing 

 honey. If you can not take the time to 

 plant basswoods, as I have done, find a lo- 

 cality where there is a heavy growth of 

 basswood already, then make the cleared 

 land yield honey from plants, as I have sug- 

 gested. Our proof-reader suggests that the 

 German short mile, equal to 3/!^ English 

 miles, is rather to be understood, where the 

 long mile is not mentioned, the latter being 

 equal to 5| of our miles. This is certainly a 

 very important point, and it seems to me 

 strange that so many years have passed 

 without somebody either here or in Germany 

 calling attention to the misleading state- 

 ment in our books and journals, about the 

 large number of bees kept on a square mile 

 in Germany. 



SECTIONS OPEN ON ALL SIDES. 



FRIEND DADANT GIVES US HIS RE.ASONS TOR 

 THINKING THEM PREFERABI-E. 



O, friend Root, we have not experimented 

 largely on the open sections; but in what ex- 

 perience we have had, our conclusions have 

 been the same as those of the first and roost 

 firm advocate of open sections, a modest 

 man, who does not put himself forward— Oliver 

 Foster. Hutchinson says, and we say with him. " I 

 have seen bees sulk for days during a good honey- 

 flow, simply because the present condition of 

 things was not to their liking." On the other 

 hand, Foster explains very nicely and clearly why 

 bees do not like sm all receptacles for their honey, 

 and always sulk more in them than in larger ones. 



