HOW FAR WILL BEES GO FOR HONEY?

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3674, 24 April 1883, Page 4

HOW FAR WILL BEES GO FOR HONEY?

The precise distance that bees will fly in search of forage I am unable to state. Some consider three""miles to be the extreme limit, Avhile others place it as high as tAvelvc miles. Tho most satisfactory results may be expected if abundant stores can he found within two miles. It is evident that they will work more freely upon blossoms at some little distance,': than Avhen] these are very near the apiary. If I Avere to sow anything with a view to a supply of honey, I should prefer that it should not be in the immediate A'icinity of the hives. Their flights are evidently modified by local conditions. During tho large yield from bassAvood in 187-1, as the blossoms failed in the valley, the bees still continued bringing in the same quantity of honey, folloAving the basswood day by day, as it opened on the hills, until the first Aveek in August, when they still came in hca-Adlv loaded, but very tired from a long flight." I drove to the heights. six miles distant, and found that basswood was there just coining into bloom. I immediately moved forty-eight swarms to this location,"and in the following week these fortv-eighf colonies gave me one ton of surplus honey, while the seventy-oneswarms left at home did not secure one-half that amount, yet they continued working upon the same ground during the same period. This is a. fine illustration of the advantage of obtaining- forage Avithin a reasonably short distance. I have never had direct proof to the effect, yet there is ground for the belief that even if honey could not be found nearer, bees would not fly the distance named without being gradually led along by nc-Avly opening blossoms, as in the wise mentioned.—Quinby's Ncav BeeKeeping.