400 PASTUEAGE AND OTERSTOCKXKO. 



Overstocking. 



OUR COUNTBT NOT IN DANGER OP BEING OVERSTOCKED 

 WITH BEES. 



707. If the opinions, entertained by some, as to the 

 danger of overstocking were correct, bee-keeping in this 

 country, would always have been an insignificant pursuit. 



It is diflBcult to repress a smile when the owner of a few 

 hives, in a district where hundreds might be made to pros- 

 per, gravely imputes his ill-success to the fact, that too 

 many bees are kept in his vicinity. If, in the Spring, a 

 colony of bees is prosperous and healthy, it wiU gather 

 abundant stores, in a favorable season, even if many equally 

 strong are in its immediate vicinity ; while, if it is feeble, it 

 will be of little or no value, even if it is in " a land flowing 

 with milk and honey," and there is not another colony 

 within a dozen miles of it. 



As the great Napoleon gained many of his Adctories by 

 having an overwhelming force at the right place, in the 

 right time, so the bee-keeper must have strong colonies, 

 when numbers can be turned to the best account. If 

 they become strong only when they can do nothing but 

 consume what little honey has been previously gathered, he 

 is hke a farmer who suffers his crops to rot on the ground, 

 and then hires a set of idlers to eat him out of house and 

 home. 



708. Although bees can fly, in search of food, over three 

 miles, still, if it 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 quar- 



• " Jndging from the sweep that bees take from the side of a railroad train in 

 motion, we should estimate their pace at about thirty miles an honi. This 

 wonld give them fonr minutes to reach the extremity of their common range. " 

 ^London Quarterly R&view . 



