>
> > If I assume the hives are not spread equally, but rather occupy
> effectively only 50% of the
>  available forage area I still have 75 acres per hive.


Excellent point Dick!  Dick's response is the sort of discussion that I
hope for--doing a bit of homework, and taking time to analyze and do the
math.

That said, 75 acres per hive may sound like a lot, North Dakota today has
about 91 acres total per hive during summer, so if one divides by 2, that's
perhaps 45 decent forage acres per hive these days.  I'm hearing lots of
beekeepers complaining about lack of forage in North Dakota these days.

In North Dakota in 1946, there were only a total of 55 acres in the state
per *reported *colony of bees.  So again dividing by half of the land
perhaps being useful for forage, that would have been perhaps 27 acres of
decent forage land per hive.

In my own area, when I divide acreage by the number of my hives alone, I
come up with 43 acres/hive.  I have every reason to believe that my
apiaries definitely exceed optimal stocking rate.

So although a valid argument, I'm not yet convinced that thore was indeed
adequate forage acreage per colony back in the 1940's.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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