1070 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



yielding trees will yield more honey per acre 

 than any shrubbery or plant. 



In some localities 1000 acres might take 

 care of 100 colonies; but as a rule we may 

 figure that it will require much more than 

 this. As a general thing bees do not fly 

 much further than a mile and a half from 

 the home yard. This would make a circle of 

 three miles across, or 4521 acres. If we al- 

 low liberally for wooded lands, cultivated 

 lands, and dwelling-houses, probably we 

 should have to cut down this amount by at 

 least a half, probably a little more, so that, 

 in the height of the honey season, taking 

 clover and basswood as they may come in, 

 100 colonies would not have access to much 

 more than 2000 acres. This would make an 

 aggregate of 20 acres per colony. 



If we turn to the alfalfa regions we shall 

 probably find a much smaller acreage re- 

 quired to take care of 100 colonies. Just 

 what this acreage may be I could not say, 

 and therefore leave it to some of our alfalfa- 

 honey producers to give us any available 

 data they may have. 



This is an interesting problem, and it has 

 some practical bearing, because this question 

 of overstocking has come to be a very seri- 

 ous one. In the alfalfa localities it can be 

 definitely known how many thousand acres 

 there are of this plant for a range of 1 J miles. 

 One can, therefore, determine pretty closely 

 how many colonies can work profitably on a 

 given number of acres of alfalfa. —Ed.] 



OVERSTOCKING. 



In regard to the subject of overstocking, 

 it is surprising how many there are who 

 seem to think that, because a locality will 

 support ten or fifteen colonies and give good 

 returns, it is a "fine bee-range." It seems 

 to me that one of the principal reasons that, 

 the more colonies you have in a location, the 

 less honey you get per colony, is not because 

 there is not honey enough within range, but 

 because many bees visit the same blossoms 

 only to find that some bee just preceding it 

 has sucked all the honey, and still there is 

 just enough scent of honey to attract them, 

 and thus thousands of bees visit flowers one 

 after another, only to be disappointed; 

 whereas if there were few bees in the 

 same field each bee would have to stop on 

 only a few flowers when it would have a 

 load, without having exhausted either 

 strength or time, and both time and strength 

 count heavily during a flow of honey. It is 

 like going into a chestnut-grove. The first 

 trees you reach you begin to pick up burrs, 

 and possibly find one out of a dozen that 

 has not already been robbed of its contents. 

 I believe that bee-keepers are beginning to 

 realize the importance of smaller apiaries 

 and more of them. D. R. Keyes. 



Quitman, Ga., Oct. 17. 



agricultural industry it will be when a man 

 can feel just as sure of the pasturage for his 

 bees as he does of the pasturage for his 

 cattle, and that time will never come till he 

 has some legal rights in the case." 



If the above may be understood to mean 

 that an individual bee-keeper should have 

 legal protection as an exclusive occupant of 

 a given territory, that time will never come. 

 I think no sane person would contend for a 

 moment that an owner would not have a 

 right to cut his basswood timber, even though 

 it might destroy the bee-pasturage; nor that 

 he would not have the right, ethically and 

 legally, to cut his luxuriant alfalfa before it 

 blossomed, nor that he would not be justified 

 in plowing under his white-clover pasture, 

 and planting the field to corn if he desired 

 to do so, though his bee-keeping neighbor 

 might be compelled in consequence to feed 

 his bees. 



Who shall say that he shall not have the 

 right to use his own, which he may utterly 

 destroy? No legal rights will nor can be 

 given in cases such as referred to, because 

 no law can be found to meet the case with- 

 out interfering with the personal rights of 

 individuals in the control of their own proper- 

 ty. No court in Christendom, not even a 

 cross-roads justice, would sustain such a 

 statute unless he had " a bee in his bonnet. ' ' 

 Wm. M. Whitney. 



Lake Geneva, Wis., Oct. 21. 



bee pasturage protected by law. 

 Mr. Root:— On page 967, "One thing is 

 certain: If bee-keeping ever becomes as 

 stable and reliable a pursuit as other lines of 



getting rid of fertile workers after 

 brood-rearing is over. 



While I am aware that it has been said 

 that no successful bee-keeper would allow 

 his bees to be so long queenless as to get 

 fertile workers, the fact remains that many 

 do. Even our good friend Dr. Miller gives 

 us a valuable point on page 968. 



To keep them out entirely requires a lot 

 of looking-after, which many times is un- 

 profitable, and at times impossible. While 

 it is best to examine before the honey-flow 

 is over, and brood-rearing as well, it often 

 happens after this is done that fertile work- 

 ers will get to business. Particularly is this 

 true of colonies which supersede after the 

 main crop is over. 



To get rid of fertile workers the rule is to 

 "give several frames of young bees, " which 

 is practically impossible late in the season. 

 Transferring larvae into their queen-cells is 

 also out of the question. Uniting is usually 

 practiced; but even then if both colonies 

 united are strong enough to winter alone, 

 one is virtually lost. I give you a method 

 which enabled me to preserve the colony and 

 get rid of the nuisance. 



Go to a colony which can spare three or 

 four frames of bees— the more the better, 

 for fertile-worker colonies are usually weak. 

 Be sure you leave the queen behind. Place 

 in an empty body, and put back frames of 

 honey in place of those removed. You take 

 the body and bees to the fertile-worker hive. 

 Place a wire screen over the fertile workers, 

 and the frames and body over the screen, 



