THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



181 



For the American Bee Journal, 



How Far will Bees Go for Honey 1 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



On page 3(1 1 notice an extract from 

 ilr. Pettigrew's " Handy Book of 

 Bees," in which tlie claim is made 

 that "bees will perish and die for 

 want of food within three miles of 

 good pasture." Mr. P. farther states 

 as his opinion " that very few bees go 

 more tluin two miles for food." 



As this is a matter of interest to all, 

 I will give some facts -which have 

 come nnder my observation, going to 

 prove that Mr. P. is incorrect in his 

 conclnsions as applied to the United 

 States, however the case may be, re- 

 garding the fliglit of bees in the Old 

 World. 



If bees only went two miles in 

 search of food it would take bnt a 

 limited conception to see that a very 

 few colonies of bees would overstock 

 many localities where now large 

 apiaries are kept. This matter of 

 overstocking my location with bees 

 used to worry me quite a little when 

 I had from 20 to 40 colonies of bees, 

 but when I became convinced that 

 bees went from 3 to 4 miles from 

 choice for honey, I ceased to worry 

 about it, and I find that at the present 

 time bees do as well as ever with over 

 300 colonies within a distance of a 

 mile of me. 



When I had been keeping bees about 

 two years, and had some 18 to 20 col- 

 nies of black liees, I chanced to go 

 into the orchard near by to watch the 

 bees at work on the apple blossoms. 

 The spring before this, Italian bees 

 had been introduced into a town ad- 

 joining ours, and were increased to 

 some 30 colonies, the increase being 

 made wholly by division, so there 

 could liave been no stray swarms of 

 Italian bees in the woods. These bees 

 were fully three miles from me in a 

 straight line, and as I then believed 

 the same as does Mr. Pettigrew, you 

 can imagine my surprise when almost 

 the first bee I saw proved to be an 

 Italian. Upon examination I found 

 that on an average one bee in five was 

 Italian, which were at work on tlie 

 apple bloom, and this with apple blos- 

 soms in profusion every where. 



Still later, this same season, I was 

 cutting a Held of clover one mile from 

 home, or four miles from these same 

 Italians, when I saw bees at work on 

 the clover. As I had read, previous 

 to this, much about Italian bees work- 

 ing on red clover, I stopped the horse, 

 got off the machine, and to my sur- 

 prise counted five Italians to two 

 blacks, and this with fields red with 

 clover every where. I was now con- 

 vinced that there was little need of 

 fearing that I would not be able to 

 keep 100 colonies without overstocking 

 my pasturage, as that was the number 

 I then desired to attain. But so far 

 I had only proved that bees would go 



at least four miles from home to work, 

 but could not say whether they could 

 work to advantiige that distance or 

 not. In the latter part of August, 

 1874, 1 ascertained that the bees were 

 getting honey from buckwheat, by 

 the odor whidi greeted me from the 

 bee yard on damp evenings. As there 

 was not a field of buckwiieat in sight 

 of the apiary, I was curious to kiKiw 

 where the honey came from. At two 

 miles from home 1 found a small field 

 of about three acres, and a mile further 

 on was another field of about the 

 same size, while at a distance of al)out 

 five miles there was from 30 to .50 acres 

 all in full bloom. The result of the 

 buckwheat season showed that from 

 about 60 colonies I sold 900 pounds of 

 buckwheat comb honey, and the bees 

 had at least 1.. 500 pounds of the same 

 kind to winter on, as the hives were 

 nearly destitute of honey before, and 

 at the end of buckwheat they had a 

 great abundance. 



Again, the nearest teasel fields are 

 from 21^ to 3 miles from my apiary, 

 while they extend from there on ten 

 or more miles. A bee which works 

 on teasel gets her abdomen covered 

 with a whitish dust, so that she is as 

 readily distinguished as is one which 

 works on pumpkin or squash blos- 

 soms. As teasel commences to bloom 

 at about the same time the basswood 

 does, the bees must leave the bass- 

 wood to work on the teasel, which 

 thing they do, for where both are se- 

 creting honey. I find about half of the 

 bees going into each hive covered 

 with teasel dust, and at times when 

 basswood yields but little, nearly all 

 the bees will be thus dusted. Besides 

 this reason for believing that the 

 bees work on teasel as above, I have 

 another : I attend church 2}^ miles 

 from home, in the direction of these 

 teasel fields, and when the teasel is in 

 bloom 1 have seen them by tlie score 

 pass the church, going to and from 

 the fields when the wind was un- 

 favorable. 



Once more : Seven miles to the 

 southeast is a hill which is the highest 

 point in our country, it being nearly 

 800 feet higher than my apiary. After 

 a distance of one mile, there is a grad- 

 ual rise until the top of the hill is 

 reached. There are from 10 da vs to 2 

 weeks difference in time of the bass- 

 wood bloom between that at the top 

 of this hill and the same near my 

 apiary. The past season, the bees 

 labored to just as good advantage, as 

 far as 1 could see, tor 7 days after the 

 basswood bloom was all gone 3 miles 

 distant, as they did when it was in 

 blossom nearer the apiary. 



In this, my experience is different 

 from the author of Quinby "s New Bee- 

 Keeping (L. C. Root), who says : 

 " During the large yield from bass- 

 wood in 1S74, as the blossoms failed 

 in the valley, the bees continued 

 bringing in the same quality of honey, 

 following the basswood dav by dav as 

 it opened on the hills, until the first 

 week in August, when they still came 

 in heavily loaded, but very tired from 

 a long flight. I drove to the heights, 

 miles distant, and found the bass- 

 wood was there just coming into 

 bloom. I immediately moved 48 colo- 



nies to this location, and in the fol- 

 lowing week these 48 colonies gave 

 nie one ton of surplus honey, while 

 the 71 colonies left at home did not 

 secure one-half that amount, yet they 

 continued working upon the same 

 ground during the entire period." 



However, tliere is one thing Mr. 

 Boot failed to note, which is, that if 

 a continuous good yield is to be se- 

 cured, it is necessary to have contin- 

 ued good weather, for if 2 or 3 days of 

 rainy weather should occur when the 

 bloom had receded 4 or .'5 miles (thus 

 allowing the bloom to fail for a dis- 

 tance of a mile or so beyond where 

 the bees had gathered honey), they 

 will never go to the hill-top, be the 

 honey ever so plenty there. 



The solution seems to be that after 

 the rain they go to the trees where 

 they last procured honey, and finding 

 none, nor any near by, conclude that 

 the harvest is over without going over 

 the strip where the honey has failed 

 to that which is beyond. In the above 

 I believe I have given good proof that 

 bees do labor to advantage from 4 to 7 

 miles from home. If any are still 

 skeptical let them turn to page 181 of 

 Gleaninqs for the year 1882, where they 

 will find an article from the pen of 

 H. A. Marsh, which will convince all. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For tlie American Bee Joarna^ 



Peculiarity of Laying Workers. 



B. M. OSBORN. 



On June 1, 1883, 1 prepared 5 three- 

 frame nuclei with bees and brood; 

 and No. 2, in a few days, had laying 

 workers, and for 27 days they would 

 not take care of a queen-cell, and I 

 put a virgin queen into this hive, and 

 they drove her out in two days, and 

 at the end of 27 days I believe tliey 

 had 1,000 laying workers, so at night I 

 killed them with sulphur, and cleaned 

 out the hive and refilled it with bees 

 and brood ; the other 4 nuclei were 

 full of bees for four months. I kept 

 replenishing them from other hives, 

 and they were queenless all the four 

 months except while their queens 

 mated. I did not let them stay in 

 after about 10 to 100 eggs were laid. I 

 grafted in queen-cells as soon as the 

 queens were taken out. These four 

 nuclei have never had a laying worker 

 yet ; they are yet on the summer 

 stands. 



Colony No. 14 (pure Syrian) had 7 

 combs all solid with capped lirood on 

 May 1, 1883. About May 10 all was 

 hatched, and the combs were all filled 

 with eggs in a few days, and some 

 cells had 6 to 8 eggs in each, and when 

 all was capped, it was a curiosity ; the 

 7 combs were all worker cells contain- 

 ing about 20,000, and about 12,000 of 

 them were drones; the workers were 

 all regularly capped, and ttie drones 

 were regularly at intervals all over 

 those combs. 



About June 24, at 2 p. m., I was 

 alarmed, and I rushed to the scene of 

 action, and it was a sight to see about 

 12,000 degraded drones swarming from 

 this hive, and worker bees guarding 

 the entrance, refusing the drones to 



