THOUSAND ANSWERS 161 



A. I have been trying for 50 years, right in the same location, 

 to learn how many colonies could be kept without overstocking, 

 and I don't know yet. One great trouble is that no two years are 

 alike as to yield. In a poor year there may not be nectar enough 

 for 25 colonies, while in the very same spot a good year may give 

 abundance for 100 colonies. And you never can be entirely sure 

 in advance whether the year will be good or bad. If the 22 cases 

 made by your 45 colonies were 22 cases of 24 sections each, that 

 would be about 12 sections per colony. If that was all the sur- 

 plus that could be stored by decently good bees, it is doubtful 

 that a larger number would have given so very much more. For 

 you are right in counting the honey gathered by the bees for 

 their own use, and it is generally a good deal more than the 

 amount they put in the supers. Suppose it takes 200 pounds per 

 colony for their own use, and that each colony yields a surplus 

 of 100 pounds. Each colony would then gather 300 pounds, which 

 would be 13,500 pounds for 45 colonies. Now suppose the field 

 yields 15,000 pounds. There would be 1,500 pounds that would go 

 to waste, and you might just as well have five colonies more to 

 gather it all. But suppose you plant 150 colonies. They would 

 need 30,000 pounds for their own use. But the field yields only 

 15,000, and so yo.u would get no surplus and would have to feed 

 15,000 pounds. Some locations are much better than others. In 

 some parts of Iowa beekeepers harvest big crops with 300 colonies 

 in a single apiary. 



Over-stocking. — Q. I have only had my bees about three years. 

 The man I bought them from said he was selling off his bees and 

 was going to Old Mexico, as that was a great bee country. So I 

 bought about one-half of his bees, and he went away and was 

 gone about two years. Then he came back and began to keep 

 bees again. I have four apiaries now. One was doing fairly well, 

 but he has just put a big apiary about one-half mile from mine. 

 We figure on 50 pounds per colony here. Now, what would you 

 eastern beekeepers think of being treated this way? It does not 

 look to me like he or I will get very much honey by having the 

 bees so close together. The locations for bees are about all taken 

 up here, I think. There are some new locations about 18 miles 

 from here. This over-crowding does not look very encouraging 

 to me. What do you think of it? (Arizona.) 



A. My thought about it is that this sort of thing makes bee- 

 keeping a very uncertain thing to count on. Years ago I took the 

 ground that if ever it was to be a reliable business, a man should 

 have just the same right to his territory as the man who keeps 



