262 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



a novice myself, and gave little 

 thought tn the subject, supposing that 

 bees traveled that far or farther, if 



i ry. Somet ime later, hi iwever, 

 from reading my beebooks and jour- 

 nal-.. 1 noticed that several authors 



that one and one-half to two 

 miles was supposed to be the limit 

 that bees traveled Foi tores I In - 

 set me to thinking, and to investigate 

 further. 



In tile spring of 1883, an old-time 

 box-hive beekeeper came to my home 



id : "Smith, I want you to 

 conic down and help me to find a 

 lie went ahead to aj 

 i i j beaut miiI vcll< >« I" . 

 i 1 ing on the blossoms in his 

 orchard. Being a great lover of such 

 pastimes, I agreed upon a date to 

 make the hunt. 'When the date ar- 

 rived we met. fully prepared with 

 our equipment to make the search. 

 Sin. enough, when we reached his 



i here were the yellow bees on 

 the blossoms in great numbers. We 

 proceeded to catch and bait some of 

 them. We soon had a line started 

 that went directly toward my home. 

 Wi baited and lined those bees for 



hours, until we had traced them to 

 within a mile of my apiary. We were 

 then convinced that they were my 

 Bj .or line it was fully five 

 miles from my yard to tin- home oi 

 my neighbor. 



The two years, 1886 and 1887, wen 

 extremely dry in Texas, being re- 

 membered In hi. in. people as exten- 

 sive droughts. The first of these 

 (rears was a total failure for bees; 

 but the second was better. A few 

 lot ,il showers of rain fell in differ- 

 ent part-, of the county. Some parts 

 • ■I the State had fair rains; but in 

 mj own immediate vicinity we had 

 practically no rain. Some seven miles 

 from my home was the black 

 land belt ; in favorable years the 

 horse-mint grew to perfection there. 

 It was the chief dependency for a 

 honey crop nearly all years. In this 

 year, several local rains happened to 

 fall there. There was a good bloom 

 in a short time, and my Italian and 

 Cyprian bees averaged a surplus of 

 sixty-eight pounds of honey per col- 

 ony. The distance from my apiary 

 could not have been less than six or 

 seven miles. While dealing with this 



point, let me quote a few lines writ- 

 ten at that time for Gleanings in Bee 

 Culture, for 1888, March issue, page 

 206. "To further prove that they 

 (bees) will go six or eight miles, I 

 remember that this year (1887) has 

 been noted for drought, and what 

 rain came has only been partial 

 showers. In June, when the mint 

 blooms, everything here was burned 

 up. but six or eight miles out on the 

 prairie, there was plenty of rain in 

 time to make the mint crop splendid: 

 the result of it is. I got sixty-eight 

 pounds of extracted honey to the 

 colony." Does this look to you, my 

 reader, that bees fly not more than 

 two miles for. stores? Don't tell me 

 that I was mistaken, and that the 

 bees gathered this honey from some 

 other source. I was familiar with all 

 the surrounding country for miles ; 

 furthermore, I am sure that this 

 plant was not growing any nearer 

 my apiary. 



At another time, in this same lo- 

 cality, I got a surplus of twenty 

 pounds of comb honey to the hive 

 from the wild marigold, when not a 

 plant of it grew nearer than four 

 miles of my apiary. That year the 

 crop was plentiful about six miles 

 away. 



Some three years ago, during the 

 "kinnikinic" bloom — one of the su- 

 mac families — a friend of mine was 

 attracted by the loud humming of 

 bees passing over him. This man, 

 Mr. D. H. Stribbling, is a beeman 

 himself, and, being interested, he 

 stopped to investigate. He soon dis- 

 covered bees by thousands passing 

 over him. From the direction they 

 were coming, and from the color of 

 several, he was persuaded that the) 

 were from my own apiary. At that 

 time, he tells me, he was fully three 

 miles from my home yard, and the 

 bees had to go at least one mile fur- 

 ther. My home apiary here in Llano 

 County, is situated approximately 

 two and one-half miles from any 

 mesquite timber; yet during a fair 

 blossom this apiary stores surplus 

 honey from this tree about as fast 

 as my outapiaries that are in the 

 midst of the bloom. x 



Now, in conclusion, it is unneces- 

 sary for me to take up more space. 

 I am sure that bees do fly this far 

 here in the South, and that they do 

 gather surplus honey a great deal 

 farther than two and one-half miles 

 from home. Instances are ton num- 

 erous to the contrary; and too many 

 have reached the same conclusion 

 that 1 have. Now, gentle reader, im- 

 det Stand that 1 have no long- 

 - or b mg-ti mgued bees fi n 

 sale-. I am merely interested in 

 knowing more about the honeybee. 



Llano, Texas. 





Entrances 



l: \rthur C. Miller. 



RECENTLY the location of the 

 lm i' . ntrance in relation to the 

 position of the combs has again 

 attracted attention, hut this time in 

 connection with comb conditions and 

 not with temperature within the hive, 

 Some years ago beekeepers had a 



