8 BULLETIN 685, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OE AGEICULTTJEE. 



COLONIES OF BEES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The first census to make inquiry concerning the number 

 of colonies of bees on farms in the United States was the 

 twelfth, which reports the number of colonies belonging to 

 farmers on June 1, 1900, to be 4,108,239. The next census 

 (1910) reported 3,445,006 on hand as of April 15, 1910, but 

 the last showing is imfairly low even compared with the 

 first, because the date of the last census is 45 days earlier 

 than the former and at a period of the year when the number 

 of colonies is increasing rapidly from swarming. Making 

 allowance for this difference, the number in 1910 should 

 perhaps have been about 3,700,000 colonies. It seems 

 unquestionable that the number of colonies of bees in the 

 hands of farmers did actually decline in the intervening 10 

 years, which had not been as a rule favorable for honey pro- 

 duction and had also been marked by considerable losses of 

 bees from diseases of the brood, which often destroyed 

 whole apiaries, containing sometimes hundreds of colonies. 

 The period of the Nineties preceding the census of 1900 had, 

 to the contrary, been favorable for bees, aside from disease 

 in some sections. However, the report of the 1910 census 

 represents more nearly than the former one the customary 

 basis of number of colonies as recognized by bee keepers, 

 namely, the spring count, i. e., the number of working colo- 

 nies of bees remaining on hand (excluding new swarms of 

 the current year), at about the settled beginning of the 

 spring nectar flow, which, for the country at large, would 

 average about May 1. 



The changes in numbers of bees since 1910 may be fol- 

 lowed in a general way by a study of the percentages of 

 increase shown in connection with the census figures just 

 quoted in Table I. The bureau's first inquiry, made on 

 May 1, 1914, asked concerning the number of colonies com- 

 pared with the usual. The usual, being the average of the 

 preceding few years, would represent figures in all proba- 

 bility very close to those of the census year 1910. The 

 responses indicated an increase over the usual of 0.4 per cent 

 and an increase over 1913 of over 4 per cent, which would 

 point to a small decline subsequent to 1910, before the 

 beginning in 1914 of the upward trend which has been 



