ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



139 



Mr. Arnd — Because they gathered 

 buckwheat honey, and there wasn't any 

 buckwheat within 6 miles. 



Mr. Whitney — I can not give any evi- 

 dence from personal observation, but I 

 remember reading in one of the bee- 

 papers of bees going 9 miles. [Laugh- 

 ter.] Hold on! Don't laugh! Let me 

 tell my story. You will believe it. 

 During the time of the big fire in 

 Chicago there was also a fire in north- 

 ern New York, in a black-ash swamp, 

 and it swept oflf the whole swamp. It 

 was 5 miles long. The next year it grew 

 up to fireweed. A gentleman living south 

 of that swamp 4 miles owning the only 

 Italian bees in all that region, found 

 his bees very busily at work. He hitched 

 up his team and drove north along the 

 road. He could see his bees going and 

 coming, and he drove to the south end 

 of that swamp, and he said he never 

 saw such a sight in his life as he saw 

 there. His bees were busily at work on , 

 that fireweed. He drove to the ex- 

 treme north end and he said they were 

 just as thick there as they were at the 

 south end. He knew they were his bees, 

 because he saw them going and coming 

 and they were the Italian bees, and the 

 only, Italian bees in that region he 

 owned at that time. It seems almost 

 incredible but I saw the man's picture 

 in the journal that published the state- 

 ment and he looked like an honest man. 



Pres. York — Was it Ira Barber? 



Mr. Whitney — That is the name. 



A Member — If Ira Barber told it, it 

 is so. 



Mr. Wilcox — I have some knowledge 

 of it, because I used to be a bee-hunter, 

 and as a bee-hunter we always know 

 how far it is from where we start to 

 where we find the bees. We followed 

 them up and we found bees 5 miles 

 from home, but exceedingly rarely; 

 more commonly 4 miles. Yet I never 

 knew bees to work profitably — to carry 

 honey profitably to store a surplus — at 

 a distance greater than 2% miles. 



Pres. York — Bearing on that last point, 

 perhaps Mr. Arnd will tell as to the 

 resuk of the working 6 miles away. How 

 much did they do? 



Mr. Arnd — They did not do very 

 much. In fact, it took me about 6 

 months to find where they did get the 

 honey; and I found afterwards that the 

 buckwheat was 6 miles away. 



Pres. York — The honey was all gone 

 by that time! 



^r. Arnd — The honey was all gon*. 



Mr. Wheeler — I had a pretty good ex- 

 perience along that line. Some 20 years 

 ago I lived in Iowa. I went into a 

 country where there were no bees at all. 

 The nearest colony was 15 or 20 miles. 

 I watched those very closely, and I 

 watched the fielders to see how far the 

 bees went, and it was very, very seldom 

 that I found a bee farther than a mile 

 away from its home ; and out there there 

 was no chance of being mistaken about 

 the distance, because the country was 

 all measured off in section miles, mile 

 by mile, and hardly any of those bees 

 traveled more than a mile. 



Mr. Wilcox — ^What season of the 

 year? 



Mr. Wheeler — At all times, all through 

 the working season. They did not appear 

 to go much beyond the mile limit. They 

 were thick within that mile. 



Mr. Todd — Nectar must have been 

 plentiful. 



Mr, Wheeler — No, that was the pe- 

 culiar thing about it; they hardly made 

 a living. It was a very poor country at 

 that time. Since then white clover has 

 come in, and it is a fine country for bees 

 now; but at that time they had to skir- 

 mish to get a living, and they very 

 seldom got away more than a mile. 



Mr. Clarke — ^I think the last speaker 

 and I come from the same locality. 



Pres. York — The same State, any way. 



Mr. Clarke — I don't know whether 

 the bees we have at the present time 

 are better fliers or honey-gatherers, but 

 my apiary is at Plymouth Creek, half 

 way between Le Mars and Merrill, and 

 my apiary is situated upon the northeast 

 corner of the section. One mile to the 

 farthest end of it I have a pasture of 

 40 acres, and it was alxjut as white as 

 a white tablecloth this year with white 

 clover. We had a considerable crop of 

 honey there this year, and my bees all 

 through the season never worked on my 

 farm. They went almost to Merrill to 

 gather the honey; and what could be 

 the reason of that? Mr. Arnd says he 

 could not see the surplus. I have for- 

 gotten just exactly what the average 

 is, but one colony stored 630 pounds, 

 and a number of them over 300; some 

 of them up to 400 pounds of honey. 

 Whether I have the long fliers, or 

 whether the country is changed, I can 

 not say, but that is my experience. 



Mr. France — As to how far bees work 

 from the home yard, I may say my bees 



