around the entrances of strong colo- 

 nies. Fewer flying bees at some colo- 

 nies may indicate the colonies are 

 not strong. 



The beekeeper can smoke the en- 

 trance of a hive to calm the bees and 

 then raise the cover. Dozens of bees 

 should be seen on every frame. 



Next, the beekeeper should be 

 asked to pry the supers, or stories, 

 apart. More bees should be seen on 

 every frame in both supers. Check 

 all the supers if the hive is more 

 than two stories high. A colony with 

 a cluster of bees on only a few 

 frames near the center of the hive 

 is generally too weak to be of much 

 value for crop pollination. 



Many people estimate colony 

 strength in square inches of brood. 

 Have the beekeeper lift out the 

 brood frames. Count the brood 

 frames and multiply each by 100 to 

 get a rough estimate of the square 

 inches. 



A strong colony should have from 

 6 to 12 frames, or 600 to 1,200 square 

 inches, of brood. A blanket of bees 

 should cover all the brood. 



Learn to distinguish between 

 brood, honey, pollen, and empty 

 combs. Honey in the comb takes up 

 bee clustering space; therefore, a 

 hive with a large amount of honey 

 in it will appear stronger than one 

 with little honey. 



NUMBER OF COLONIES 

 TO USE 



Because of the wide variety of 

 conditions that can exist in any area, 

 the precise number of bees that you 

 will need cannot be given. However, 

 the number of honey bees necessary 



primarily depends on the number of 

 natural pollinators already in the 

 area, and on the number of other 

 crops that may be competing for the 

 attention of pollinating insects. 



The following list shows the min- 

 imum numbers of strong honey bee 

 colonies per acre that you need to 

 pollinate crops under most condi- 

 tions. 



Colonies 



per acre Crops 



1 to 2 — Cherries, musk melons (can- 

 taloup, watermelon, etc.) ; 

 peaches, plums, tangelos, tan- 

 gerines, squash, almonds, apples, 

 clovers (alsike, crimson, ladino, 

 white) ; pears, trefoils, vetch 

 (purple, hairy) ; cucumber, and 

 cotton. 



3 to 4__. Alfalfa, almonds, carrots, sun- 

 flowers, sweetclovers, blueber- 

 ries, cranberries, onions, and red 

 clover. 



COLONY DISTRIBUTION 

 IN THE FIELD 



Honey bees usually pollinate 

 flowers more thoroughly within 100 

 yards of their colonies than they do 

 flowers at greater distances. To get 

 the best coverage, therefore, you 

 must distribute the honey bee colo- 

 nies in groups throughout the fields 

 or orchards you want pollinated. 



In fields of less than 40 acres, the 

 colonies may be placed along the 

 borders of the field. In fields of more 

 than 40 acres, put the colonies in the 

 field in groups 0.1 mile (528 feet) 

 apart in all directions. The follow- 

 ing list gives the number of colonies 

 you should use in each group when 

 you need a certain number of colon- 

 ies per acre. For example, if you 

 need one colony per acre for the 



