Here's some more stuff on overstocking. These are from old bee books which
have been digitized and made available on the internet. The post is rather
long, I know, but I found it extremely interesting

* There's more at http://bees.library.cornell.edu/ 

* * *

Overstocking.

The number that can be profitably kept in one locality is limited by the
amount of pasturage. Of late years quite a number of bee-keepers have
established one or more out-apiaries, for the sake of keeping more bees than
the homes pasturage would support. Just how many bees can be supported in a
single locality has probably never been ascertained, and it is just as
probable that it never will. One field may support five times as many as
another, and the same field may support five times ass many this years as
last. Most bee-keepers , however, think it not advisable to keep more than
75 or 100 in one apiary., whilst a few think their locations so good that
200 or more can be profitably kept together.

If 100 colonies will do well in each apiary, the probability is that 75 will
do better; and while there is unoccupied territory all about him he would
better keep on the safe side and have so few in each place as to have no
fear of overstocking. His own convenience would have much to do in deciding.
For instance, if he has, in all, 300 colonies, and thinks that 100 can find
enough to do in a place, but can get through the work of only 75 in day,
then he will keep the 300 in 4 apiaries of 75 each, rather than 3 apiaries
of 100 each. For it will make him less travel to have in each apiary just
what he will do in a day's work. If he can do 50 in a day, then he may just
as well have 100 in two apiaries as in one, for in either case he must make
two trips to get through with them.

The locality should be carefully studied, and only that number of colonies
be used which on an average, one year with another, will give the largest
results in honey, with a minimum of labor and capital. If 75 hives during an
average season would furnish an average of 150 pounds to the hive, then,
obviously, the number might be increased to 100 or even 150. If, on the
other hand, the average is, say, only 50 lbs. Of extracted honey, and there
are only 50 colonies in the apiary, then, clearly, 50 would be all there
could be kept with profit in that spot; and it might be questioned whether
or not 35 might not be just as profitable …

But in some locations, notably in California, Colorado, Cuba, and in some
portions of Florida, one can have as many as 300 or 400 colonies, and in
some rare instances as many as 500 colonies in one apiary. E. W. Alexander,
of Delanson, N. Y. has some 700 colonies in one bee-yard; but he has immense
acreages of buckwheat and goldenrod. The celebrated Sespe apiary, in
Southern California, owned by J. F. McIntyre, has, in one spot, some 600
hives of bees; but the green mountains on either side, the fertile valley,
and the great abundance of honey flora, make such a number possible.

From:
The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture
A. I. Root & E. I. Root
1908

* * *

OVERSTOCKING A DISTRICT WITH BEES.

I come now to a point of the very first importance to all interested in the
cultivation of bees. If the opinions which the great majority of American
bee-keepers entertain, are correct, then the keeping of bees must, in our
country, be always an insignificant pursuit. I confess that I find it
difficult to repress a smile, when the owner of a few hives, in a district
where as many hundreds might be made to prosper, gravely imputes his ill
success, to the fact that too many bees are kept in his vicinity! The truth
is, that as bees are frequently managed, they are of but little value, even
though in "a land flowing with milk and honey." If in the Spring, a colony
of bees is prosperous and healthy, it will gather abundant stores, even if
hundreds equally strong, are in its immediate vicinity, while if it is
feeble, it will be of little or no value, even if there is not another swarm
within a dozen miles of it.

Success in bee-keeping requires that a man should be in some things, a very
close imitator of Napoleon, who always aimed to have an overwhelming force,
at the right time and in the right place; so the bee-keeper must be sure
that his colonies are numerous, just at the time when their numbers can be
turned to the best account. If the bees cannot get up their numbers until
the honey-harvest is well nigh gone, numbers will then be of as little
service as many of the famous armies against which "the soldier of Europe"
contended ; which, after the 'fortunes of the campaign were decided, only
served to swell the triumphant spoils of the mighty conqueror. A bee-keeper
with feeble stocks in the Spring, which become strong only when there is
nothing to get, is like a farmer who contrives to hire no hands to reap his
harvests, but suffers the crops to rot upon the ground, and then at great
expense, hires a number of stalwart laborers to idle about his premises and
eat him out of house and home !

I do not believe that there is a single square mile in this whole country,
which is overstocked with bees, unless it is one so unsuitable for
bee-keeping as to make it unprofitable to attempt it at all. Such an
assertion will doubtless, appear to many, very unguarded ; and yet it is
made advisedly, and I am happy to be able to confirm it, by reference to the
experience of the largest cultivators in Europe. The following letter from
Mr. Wagner, will I trust, do more than I can possibly do in any other way,
to show our bee-keepers how mistaken they are in their opinion as to the
danger of overstocking their districts, and also what large results might be
obtained from a more extensive cultivation of bees.

March 16, 1853. 

DEAR SIR :

In reply to your enquiry respecting the overstocking of a district, I would
say that the present opinion of the correspondents of the Bienenzeitung,
appears to be that it cannot readily be done. Dzierzon says, in practice at
least, "it never is done;" and Dr. Radlkofer, of Munich, the President of
the second Apiarian Convention, declares that his apprehensions on that
score were dissipated by observations which he had opportunity and occasion
to make, when on his way home from the Convention. I have numerous accounts
of Apiaries in pretty close proximity, containing from 200 to 300 colonies
each. Ehrenfels had a thousand hives, at three separate establishments
indeed, but so close to each other that he could visit them all in half an
hour's ride; and he says that in 1801, the average net yield of his Apiaries
was $2 per hive. In Russia and Hungary, Apiaries numbering from 2000 to 5000
colonies are said not to be infrequent; and we know that as many as 4000
hives are oftentimes congregated, in Autumn, at one point on the heaths of
Germany. Hence I think we need not fear that any district of this country,
so distinguished for abundant natural vegetation and diversified culture,
will very speedily be overstocked, particularly after the importance of
having stocks populous early in the Spring, comes to be duly appreciated. A
week or ten days of favorable weather, at that season, when pasturage
abounds, will enable a strong colony to lay up an ample supply for the year,
if its labor be properly directed.

Mr. Kaden, one of the ablest contributors to the Bienen-zeitung, in the
number for December, 1852, noticing the communication from Dr. Radlkofer,
says : "I also concur in the opinion that a district of country cannot be
overstocked with bees; and that, however numerous the colonies, all can
procure sufficient sustenance if the surrounding country contain
honey-yielding plants and vegetables, in the usual degree. Where utter
barrenness prevails, the case is different, of course, as well as rare."

The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of German Agriculturists was held in the City
of Hanover, on the 10th of September, 1852, and in compliance with the
suggestions of the Apiarian Convention, a distinct section devoted to
bee-culture was instituted. The programme propounded sixteen questions for
discussion, the fourth of which was as follows:—

"Can a district of country embracing meadows, arable land, orchards, and
woodlands or forests, be so overstocked with bees, that these may no longer
find adequate sustenance and yield a remunerating surplus of their products?"

This question was debated with considerable animation. The Rev. Mr. Kleine,
(nine-tenths of the correspondents of the Bee-Journal are clergyman,)
President of the section, gave it as his opinion that "it was hardly
conceivable that such a country could be overstocked with bees." Counsellor
Herwig, and the Rev. Mr. Wilkens, on the contrary, maintained that "it might
be overstocked." In reply, Assessor Heyne remarked that "whatever might be
supposed possible as an extreme case, it was certain that as regards the
kingdom of Hanover, it could not be even remotely apprehended that too many
Apiaries would ever be established; and that consequently the greatest
possible multiplication of colonies might safely be aimed at and encouraged.
At the same time, he advised a proper distribution of Apiaries.

I might easily furnish you with more matter of this sort, and designate a
considerable number of Apiaries in various parts of Germany, containing from
25 to 500 colonies. But the question would still recur, do not these
Apiaries occupy comparatively isolated positions? and at this distance from
the scene, it would obviously be impossible to give a perfectly satisfactory
answer.

According to the statistical tables of the kingdom of Hannover, the annual
production of bees-wax in the province of Lunenburg, is 300,000 lbs., about
one half of which is exported; and assuming one pound of wax as the yield of
each hive, we must suppose that 300,000 hives are annually "brimstoned" in
the province; and assuming further, in view of casualties, local influences,
unfavorable seasons, &c., that only one-half of the whole number of colonies
maintained, produce a swarm each, every year, it would require a total of at
least 600,000 colonies, (141, to each square mile,) to secure the result
given in the tables.

The number of square miles stocked even to this extent, in this country,
are, I suspect, " few and far between." The Shakers at Lebanon, have about
600 colonies; but I doubt whether a dozen Apiaries equally large can be
found in the Union. It is very evident, that this country is far from being
overstocked ; nor it is likely that it ever will be.

A German writer alleges that "the bees of Lunenburg, pay all the taxes
assessed on their proprietors, and leave a surplus besides." The importance
attached to bee-culture accounts in part for the remarkable fact that the
people of a district so barren that it has been called " the Arabia of
Germany," are almost without exception in easy and comfortable
circumstances. Could not still more favorable results be obtained in this
country under a rational system of management, availing itself of the aid of
science, art and skill?

But, I am digressing. My design was to furnish you with an account of
bee-culture as it exists in an entire district of country, in the hands of
the common peasantry. This I thought would be more satisfactory, and convey
a better idea of what may be done on a large scale, than any number of
instances which might be selected of splendid success in isolated cases.	

Very truly yours,
SAMUEL WAGNER

From 
Langstroth on the hive and the honey-bee: a bee keeper's manual.
Hopkins, Bridgman, Northampton : 1853.

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