OVERSTOCKING. 399 



square miles, maintains an average of 2,000 colonies per 

 square mile! (Heubel, Beinenzeitung, 1854, p. 11.) 



Doubtless in these districts where honey is so largely pro- 

 duced, great attention is paid to the cultivation of crops 

 which, while in themselves profitable, at the same time afford 

 abundant pasturage to the bees. 



The question, how far bees will fly in search of food, has 

 been very differently answered by different Apiarians.* I 

 am satisfied that they will fly over three miles, but believe 

 that if their food is not within a circle of about two miles 

 in every direction from the Apiary, they will be able to store 

 but little surplus honey. If pasturage abounds within a 

 quarter of a mile from their hives, so much the better ; but 

 there is no great advantage in having it close to them, unless 

 there is a great supply, as bees when they leave the hive, 

 are seldom seen to alight upon the adjoining flowers. The 

 instinct to fly to some considerable distance, was unques- 

 tionably given them to prevent the great loss which would 

 result, if they wasted their time in prying into flowers al- 

 ready despoiled of their sweets, by previous gatherers. 



In all my arrangements, I have aimed to save every step 

 for the bees that I possibly can, economizing to the utmost 

 their lime, that it may all be transmuted into honey ; an in- 

 spection of the Frontispiece of this treatise, will exhibit the 



* "Mr. Kaden, of Mayence, thinks that the range of the hees' flight 

 does not usually extend more than three miles in all directions. Sev- 

 eral years ago, a vessel laden with sugar, anchored off Mayence, and 

 was soon visited by the bees of the neighborhood, which continued to 

 pass to and from the vessel from dawn to dark. One morning, when 

 the bees were in foil flight, the vessel sailed up the river. For a short 

 time the bees continued to fly as numerously as before ; but gradually 

 the number diminished, and in the course of half an hour, all had 

 ceased to follow the vessel, which had meanwhile sailed more than four 

 miles." — Bienenzeitung, 1854, p. 83. 



