June. 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



209 



will not sell unless it shows in the case. 

 While I believe these fears are largely 

 groundless, yet it may at first make 

 some diflference. I may say, however, 

 that we Vermont bee-keepers have not 

 been in the habit of using glass in our 

 shipping-cases, or having any honey in 

 sight for the past 15 or 20 years, and 

 yet have not been able to supply the 

 demand. That carriers may know what 

 these cases contain we have always 

 pasted a label on top, stating contents 

 and asking for careful handling. We 

 have used from one to two thousand of 

 these cases with great satisfaction. We 

 were unable to sell, to one wholesale 

 dealer, honey in any other case the past 

 year. 



There is reason to believe the use of 

 these cases will largely increase the use 

 of comb honey, as with them it can be 

 cheaply sent to small, out-of-the-way 

 places where it would be impracticable 

 to send the old style of case. So popu- 

 lar have these cases been with bee- 

 keepers and dealers in honey, where 

 known, that there is reason to believe 

 that they will supersede the old style 

 of wooden cases in the near future. 

 Application for a patent has been made. 

 Prices will probably be about the same 

 as for wooden cases with glass. 



Perhaps I should add that for those 

 who desire glass in their cases of honey, 

 these cases of paper can be made to 

 take glass by cutting out holes in one 

 side and inserting glass between the two 

 layers of paper that make the shell of 

 the case, thus showing all the honey 

 necessary. 



I send photo of a case as I have made 

 it. This does not appear to weaken 

 the case enough to do harm, and re- 

 moves the objection to a case without 

 glass. 



How Far Do Bees Go For 

 Honey ? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



"I am greatly interested in bee-keeping, 

 have 2 books on the subject, and take the 

 American Bee Journal. There is very little pas- 

 turage for my 42 colonies till the bees go a 

 mile from home, then there is plenty of bee- 

 pasturage' for the next 4 or r> miles in either 

 direction. As I am so environed that I must 

 stay where I am, it will be impossible for 

 me to move to another locality. The bees 

 have done quite well here: but I have been 

 reading in one of my bee-books that bees 

 rarely fly more than a mile to IJ/i miles from 

 home in search of honey, and from this I 

 fear, if I increase them beyond what I now 

 have, that I shall overstock my locality and 

 have little or nothing in the way of honey 

 above what the bees consume. I wanted to 

 increase to 100 or 150 colonies, so T write 

 to ask you if you will tell us through the 

 columns of the American Bee Journal what 

 you think I would better do — keep only those 

 I have, or increase as I so much desire to do." 



This is a subject which I have writ- 

 ten quite a little upon, but as I see 

 the statement again going the rounds 

 of the papers that bees will not go 

 more than i 'A miles to 2 miles from 

 home for honey some even claiming 

 that bees will perish and die for want 

 of food within 3 miles of good pasture, 

 it may not be amiss to say a few words 

 again on the matter, and especially as 

 I am ref|ucsted so to do. 



If bees went only 2 miles in search 

 of food it would take but a limited 



conception to see that a very few colo- 

 nies would overstock very many locali- 

 ties where now 100 to 200 colonies are 

 kept. This matter of location used to 

 worry me quite a little when I had 

 from 25 to 40 colonies, and, especially 

 so, as my success with these was so 

 good that first one, then two, and the 

 ne.xt year two more of my neighbors 

 went into bee-keeping. The year the 

 first two commenced they came to see 

 me and asked me to help them start ; 

 and as I had been helped during my 

 first bee-keeping yetrs by Elisha Gallup, 

 Moses Quinby, and N. N. Betsinger, I 

 thought it only right that I should be as 

 free to give, as I had freely received, 

 so I helped them all I could. 



When the next two wished to start, 

 and asked my help, it came to me that 

 Gallup lived in Iowa, Quinby 100 miles 

 away, and Betsinger 12 miles off, so that 

 by helping me they incurred no loss to 

 themselves through a divided pasturage. 

 But here were four of my neighboVs, 

 all within less than one mile of mv 

 apiary, and one of them joining lands 

 with me, crazy over the bees, from the 

 success I was having, and if I encour- 

 aged them, and helped them, they would 

 without doubt soon have apiaries equal- 

 ing mine as to numbers, and the whole 

 of us would so overstock the pasturage 

 that there would be nothing for any 

 of us, and starvation for the whole lot 

 of bees, unless we fed them, which 

 would be wholly unprofitable for all 

 concerned. It was a sleepless night that 

 I oassed, but with the morning, I re- 

 solved that, come what would, I would 

 not let my neighbors know of mv selfish 

 thoughts, but would help them as others 

 had helped me, even did it prove to my 

 injury. 



Lest I forget to touch these neighbors 

 again, I will say that they increased 

 their bees till one counted his at 43 

 colonies, another 70, another 60 odd, 

 and the fourth 97, while 235 was the 

 highest number I ever had. Many and 

 many a time did we visit the apiaries 

 of each other, and often all five of us 

 make the rounds of the whole. Three 

 of them still have bees, numbering their 

 colonies from 20 to 50, while one, 

 through e.xtra cares, allowed his bees 

 to go down and out. 



Soon after the struggle of that night, 

 as Mrs. D. and myself were starting 

 home from church, which is 2i.< miles 

 from home, I began to see bees that 

 were loaded apparently, flying with diffi- 

 culty facing a quite strong south breeze, 

 the church being north of my apiary. 

 It was in time of teasel blooni^ and the 

 main teasel fields began one-half mile 

 north of the church, and extended on 

 still further north for 6 or more miles. 

 The nearer we approached home, the 

 more bees were slowly passing us, facing 

 the stiff south breeze; and upon going 

 iiito the apiarv I found the bees drop- 

 ping down in front of the hives heav- 

 ily loaded with nectar from the teasel. 

 A bee that works on teasel gets her 

 abdomen covered with a whitish dust 

 at the tip, this dust growing less and 

 less as it nears the thorax, something 

 siinilar to the yellow dust on the bee 

 that works in the blossoms of the pump- 

 kin and squash, so that she is readily 

 distinguished from bees that work on 



»^^^ I 



other bloom. And as the teasel com- 

 mences to bloom about a week before 

 basswood, and continues from a week 

 to 10 days after basswood, we have a 

 chance to know by this dust about how 

 the teasel is yielding, and how the bass- 

 wood is doine. When basswood is 

 yielding so the nectar sparkles in the 

 bloom, as is often the case when the 

 air is charged with electricity, and the 

 weather very hot. then very few bees 

 are seen with dust on them. But in 

 cooler weather, with little electricity, the 

 teasel secretes nectar better, and the 

 basswood less, when the majority of the 

 bees entering the hives are covered with 

 this teasel dust. 



Knowing now that my bees were work- 

 ing at a rapid rate 3 or more miles from 

 home, I felt much relieved as regards 

 overstocking, and secretly chided myself 

 for having thought of making a break 

 with my neighbors because they wished 

 to keep bees on my ( ?) pasturage. 



Then the next year I had something 

 which dealt a death blow to the i'/- 

 mile theory, and set at rest in m"y 

 mmd all trouble from overstocking. 

 Seven miles to the southeast of my 

 apiary is a hill which is the highest 

 point in our county, it being nearly 800 

 feet higher than where I reside. After 

 a distance of one mile there is a grad- 

 ual rise till the top of the hill is 

 reached. There is from 10 days to 2 

 weeks difference in the time of all 

 bloom on this hill (and especially bass- 

 wood) and that at the apiary. After 

 the basswood had been yielding nectar 

 about the apiary for 2 weeks that year, 

 I noticed, that, while the bees were at 

 work as strong as ever, the bloom had 

 all gone from the trees in sight about 

 me, so I began to retrench about put- 

 ting on more sections, as is usually the 

 case when the honey-flow is likely to 

 come to an end soon. But the end did 

 not come, and as the bees soon became 

 crowded for room I had to enlarge their 

 sections again. This state of affairs 

 kept on for a week, when I went to 

 the first high point southeast from the 

 apiary one afternoon when the breeze 

 was from the northwest, I was aston- 

 ished by the swarms of bees which were 

 pressing toward the apiary from the 

 hills with their loads of honey. 



The next day I drove to the top of 

 the hill and found the bloom on the 

 basswood trees in that fresh, white state 

 which all bee-keepers like to see in hot 

 weather, knowing that when the trees 

 have that whitish appearance they are in 

 the best condition for nectar-secretion 

 that can possibly be. And these trees 

 were musical from the humming of the 

 bees at work on the bloom. 



On my return home I kept watch of 

 the fading bloom, and at 414 miles 

 from the apiary there was no bloom but 

 what was too far gone for the bees to 

 work on. That year I had 28 days of 

 continuous basswood nectar pouring in- 

 to the hives, and have had other years 

 where the yield was nearly as long 

 drawn out. However, there is one thing 

 I must note, which is, that if a con- 

 tinuous good yield is to be secured at 

 this distance, it is necessary to have 

 continuous good weather, for if 2 or ^ 

 days of rainy weather, accompanied 

 with cold or cool winds, should occur 



