THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



589 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How Far Apart Should Bees be Kept 

 to Insure Purity 1 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



If any of us have a particular strain 

 of bees we wish to perpetuate, the 

 question will naturally arise, IIow far 

 must I keep them from other bees, so 

 as to insure that the queens of tlie de- 

 sired strain sjiall not mate with the 

 drones of another kind of bees, thus 

 despoiling all our plans ? 



That such thoughts are in the minds 

 of the apiarist, is proven l)y the ques- 

 tion often being asked, " How far will 

 a queen go from her hive to find a 

 mate," and other questions of similar 

 import. Keplying to such a question 

 as the above, I find this answer given 

 by one who should be authority. 

 " Queens are supposed to go a distance 

 of 114 to 2 miles if necessary ;" but as 

 he says, " are supposed," it is taken 

 for granted that the supposition is 

 based more upon what others think, 

 rather than upon any definite conclu- 

 sion arrived at by the writer. In this 

 case, however, there is nothing said as 

 to how far the drones may fly, and if 

 we allow the drones to fly as far as 

 the queens, a distance of from 3 to 4 

 miles would be the distance bees must 

 be kept apart to insure purity. 



Another writer who is considered 

 authority on the subject of queen- 

 rearing, makes his views very plain 

 by say nig, " There are some who en- 

 tertain the idea that a race of bees 

 cannot be kept pure unless they are 

 kept isolated several miles from all 

 other races. I have tested tliis matter 

 carefully and pretty thoroughly dur- 

 ing the last 20 years, and have found 

 that one-half mile is as good as a much 

 greater distance. 



He then goes on to state the length 

 of time the queen is gone from her 

 hive on her wedding trp, from which 

 I supposed he arrived at the above 

 conclusion. He gives this time as five 

 minutes, from which I conclude that 

 it is supposed that a queen cannot fly 

 over one mile in that time (J-^mile and 

 return), but as will be seen, nothing is 

 said of how far the drone may be able 

 to fly during that five minutes. 



Regarding the flight of drones, he 

 says the " drones will sometimes fly a 

 mile or more, but the queens will not," 

 but about how long it takes the drones 

 to fly that mile, nothiiig is said. But 

 what is to hinder those drones from 

 being that mile from home when the 

 queen gets at the end of her one-half 

 mile. As I see notliing to yirevent, it 

 looks as if the author would have to 

 admit that he drew his conclusions 

 blindly, and that he has also left a very 

 weak point in his argument. 



Kow let us look at some facts, which 

 are always stronger than theories, or 

 anything based upon supposition. 

 Some 20 years ago my father planted 



a piece of com on the top of a high 

 hill, and as the season was quite wet 

 during June and the forepart of July, 

 the weeds were quite rank in the corn 

 during the forepart of August. As 

 soon as through haying, we went into 

 this corii-fleld to cut the weeds. Every 

 afternoon from about half-past twelve 

 to three o'clock it would sound as if 

 there was a swarm of bees in the air, 

 and at first we looked often to see if 

 we could not see a swarm, but as none 

 was discovered, we concluded it must 

 be flies of some kind, which congre- 

 gated there to play. At this time 

 there were no bees nearer than two 

 miles from this hill, unless, pereliaiice, 

 a stray swarm might have been in a 

 piece of woodland not as far off. 

 Previous to this my father had kept 

 bees, and had often pointed out the 

 queen to me as a swarm was going 

 into the hive when he hived them, and 

 I knew a drone as well as a worker 

 bee. 



One day I was sent to the corn-field 

 alone, and as it was a very warm day, 

 along about two o'clock, I got ex- 

 tremely tired (or, perhaps, lazy), and 

 so I lied down partially in the shade 

 of the corn to rest. As I remained 

 there, listening to the hum of the flies, 

 as I supposed, I thought I would try 

 to ascertain if I could see anything ; 

 so, shading my eyes by placing one 

 hand each side of them, and looking 

 steadily up into the clear sky ; after a 

 little I could see thousands "of living 

 creatures circling in all directions, so 

 swift that at times they looked like a 

 streak of black, shooting across the 

 sky. As I was looking at them, I saw 

 a dozen of these shooting objects give 

 chase after another, and soon over- 

 took it, when their flight was less 

 rapid. Circling around, they came 

 near the ground" and stopped on the 

 tassel of a stalk of corn, which stood 

 about a rod from where I lay. I got 

 up at once and proceeded to the stalk 

 of corn, but before I was half way to 

 it, one flew off, which looked to me 

 like a queen honey bee, and the other 

 fell to the ground. Upon picking it 

 up, I found it to be a dead drohe. Al- 

 though at that time I knew little 

 of bee lore, still I had solved the mys- 

 tery of the humming noise, no longer 

 believing it to be flies which made the 

 noise, but knowing it to be made by 

 the drones of the honey bee. 



I now believe that this was a place 

 where the drones and queens congre- 

 gated, but the facts only show that 

 drones are numerous which fly two 

 miles from home, and from the next 

 fact which I give, I believe that there 

 were drones there from hives five or 

 more miles away. 



When I first kept bees there were no 

 Italians nearer than five miles distant, 

 yet occasionally I found that some of 

 young queens would produce " now 

 and then " a yellow bee. My bees 

 were all black when I bought them, 

 and the Italians were introduced five 

 miles away, after I had bought the 

 blacks. The next season a man four 

 miles distant Italianized his whole 

 apiary, and the year following I found 

 nearly one-third of my young queens 

 producing from one-twelfth to one- 

 third of their bees with yellow bands. 



Being pleased with the work done by 

 these hylirid bees, I introduced the 

 Italians into my apiary the next year, 

 which, of course, put a stop to my 

 observations, as to the distance queens 

 will mate. 



From the above facts I am positive 

 that queens of one race will mate with 

 the drones of other races of bees, un- 

 less such are kept more than five miles 

 apart. 



Nature has so ordered things that 

 the best results possible to be secured 

 are accomplislied by the instinct which 

 she prompts, and thus the queens 

 from one apiary are fertilized by 

 drones of a distant apiary, whicli se- 

 cures a cross that prevents in-and-in 

 breeding, and gives us a race of bees 

 capable of doing the best of work. 

 Tl»at it would be more to the queen- 

 breeders' interests if it were other- 

 wise, I am well aware ; but for the 

 honey-producer and for the perpetua- 

 tion of a hardy race of bees, the Crea- 

 tor has ordered things aright, in this 

 as well as other matters. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Iowa Central Convention. 



The Iowa Central Bee- Keepers' As- 

 sociation met at Winterset, Iowa, on 

 Nov. 2, at 10.30 a. m. There being but 

 few of the members in yet— adjourned 

 to 1 p. m., when the Convention was 

 called to order by the President, A. J. 

 Adkison. 



The minutes of the last meeting 

 were read and approved. The roll of 

 members was called, and a fair num- 

 ber responded to their names. 



The Secretary's and Treasurer's re- 

 ports were read and approved. 



Then came the President's address 

 on Inprovements in Bee-Culture ; and 

 then the enrollment of members was 

 made, which now numbers 28. 



The election of officers resulted in 

 the re-election of all, viz : A. J. Ad- 

 kinson. President; J. W. Graham, 

 Vice-President; J. E. Pryor, Secre- 

 tary, and Mrs. Mary Pryor, Treas- 

 urer. 



The reports of the different mem- 

 bers were given. Although there was 

 not reported as large a honey yield as 

 last year, the bee-keepers of Central 

 Iowa have nothing to discourage them. 

 From 327 colonies, spring count, there 

 was an increase of 148, and these col- 

 onies produced 8,115 lbs. of extracted^ 

 1,551 lbs. of comb honey, and 92 lbs. ot 

 beeswax. 



The plan of wintering was discussed 

 to some extent. 



Mr. Thils. Chantry, of Casey, Iowa, 

 being present, was called on to give 

 his plan of wintering in clamps, which 

 was very interesting to all present. He 

 has had very good success so far, win- 

 tering on this plan. 



Motion was made that our next 

 meeting all bringtheir dinner baskets, 

 well-filled, and have a general good 

 time, socially. 



Adjourned to meet at the Court 

 House in Winterset, on Friday, April 

 18, 1884. 



J. E. Pryor, Sec. 



