DECEMBER 1, 1916 



1127 



THE DISTANCE BEES FLY 



BY LOUIS MACEY 



" Tlie distance bees will fly for neelar " 

 has been thrashed over a lot, but just lately 

 I have been wondering if it may not be one 

 of the most promising fields for investiga- 

 tion that we have. For j'ears I have read 

 in the books and journals such a jumble of 

 views, assertions, proof, and " i^ositive 

 proof " that they would easily go 5, 6, 

 and even more miles, do good work at 4 

 miles, also that they would starve with 

 plenty of nectar-yielding blooai only iy2 

 miles away, do no good at over a mile, I 

 have been interested and often amused. 



But among those who differ so widely 

 are quite a number whose names loom big in 

 beedom, and not at all the kind with Avhom 

 one might get fumiy, so I just sighed and 

 laid it up to that inscrutible enigma of 

 " locality " and let it go at that. I also re- 

 frained from saying anything about my 

 own experiences, for what's the use? 



But now comes Mr. Chadwick, page 149, 

 Feb. 15, 1916, with the firmly fixed idea 

 that any perfectly healthy bee ought to go 

 five miles and even ten ; also " proof " that 

 California bees at least will do splendid 

 work at three, four, and five miles, with a 

 strong presumption that the bulk of 60 lbs. 

 per colony came from seven miles away. 



Mr. Chadwick says, " If Mr. Baldwin's 

 bees will not go one mile for nectar I am 

 convinced there must he something ivrong 

 with his strain of hees" (italics mine). 



Now that disturbs me ; and if, perchance, 

 we have been making a scapegoat of local- 

 ity and saying " no use " when really the 

 strain of bees has something to do with it — • 

 then we ouglit to know it ; for California is 

 not the only place where wide-ranging 

 cjualities are desirable. Indeed, I question 

 if there is a single trait for which we have 

 been aiming to breed that is more desirable 

 than the ability or desire or will, or what- 

 ever it is, that will lead our bees to extend 

 their flight even half a mile if necessary. 



For some one to tell how long or how 

 short a distance his bees will work under his 

 conditions may be interesting to llie rest of 

 us, but not very profitable. If, however, 

 some one has obseri'ed liis bees working fur- 

 ther afield than they used to. and if there is 

 reason to believe that this has come about 

 fi'om a change of stock — different bees — 

 rather than a change of pasture conditions, 

 then we find something definite. 



We have all noticed that some colonies 

 work better when nectar is scarce than 

 others. Is there a chance that this is be- 



cause they range wider and have a monopoly 

 of the bloom the other bees don't get to? 

 ]My own exi^erience has led me to believe 

 that it is a matter of habit superinduced by 

 locality. Ordinarily my bees do not need to 

 range over a mile; but once or twice the 

 grape bloomed on the Towhead Islands in 

 the river when there was not much else do- 

 ing. I myself from the river-bank <!ould 

 smell the delicious perfume of it, and I 

 knew it was abundant. The low brushy 

 islands were in plain view of my apiary 

 with no " inten-ening timber, brush, or 

 hills," but my bees never went after it, 

 tho there was only a mile of land and less 

 than half a mile of water between. 



But the most striking instance occurred 

 in 1914 when sweet clover was just at its 

 best and the nectar just rolling in. A 

 terrific hailstorm came down on us from the 

 northwest, and in two hours' time or less 

 there wasn't a blossom nor even a leaf 

 left. Wooden hive-covers were split, and 

 metal ones were all dented. Even the 

 twigs of the trees were beaten off, and all 

 that was left of the sweet clover was a 

 pulp of stems and leaves among the hail, 

 which was some four inches deej) over 

 the ground. The paths of such storms are 

 generally comjiaratively narrow, and at a 

 mile to the south and west there were a 

 few straggling blooms; a mile and a quarter 

 there were plenty, at a mile and a half the 

 sweet clover was practically untouched, 

 and white with bloom. But, tho it is a 

 perfectly level bottom with not a stick or 

 stone intervening, my bees never went to 

 that bloom, and it just made me cross to 

 see them loaf and fight and try to rob, 

 with all that bloom so near. 



It certainlj^ seemed as if they lacked 

 ginger; for with the compound eyes and 

 all kinds of olfactories the books tell about 

 they certainly ought to have seen or smelt- 

 ed (liose blooms; and even if they had gotten 

 their daily grub out there and carried 

 home only one little load a day, it would 

 not have looked so shiftless. 



What is the answer? If I could have 

 gotten just then a colony of ]\Ir. Cliad- 

 wick's bees — u.sed 1o ranging wide across 

 canyons and barren land — they no doubt 

 would have gone right after that nectar 

 and made my bees ashamed of themselves. 

 Had I gotten one of Mr. Chadwick's queens 

 six ?nonths prior, would her bees have 

 " got the habit " of short-range working 

 (he same as mine? or would the long-range 



