Interesting discussion. Some points: Figures for feral colonies are typically for much smaller colonies than in managed hives, so we'd need to divide the feral density by a factor of perhaps 3 or 4 to account for the differences in colony population sizes. We must also consider local climate. Carrying capacity may be limited not so much by the honeyflow, but rather the amount of forage available the rest of the season. The available late-summer and fall forage available in many areas in the East that I've visited would make a California beekeeper drool with envy. At the extreme let's look at an almond orchard (I question Jim's use of tree volume, as in any crop, the amount of leaf surface (or bloom) is limited by the number of photons hitting each square cm of land surface area, not by the volume of plant structure). In any case, even with this extreme bloom, at stocking rates of more than 3 colonies/acre (1280 per sq mi), colonies typically lose weight even during the approx 3-week bloom. And then there is zero for the other 49 weeks of the year. Since few plants bloom for more than a month, perhaps we can estimate by division. 3 colonies/acre * 3/52 equals roughly 6 acres needed per hive for year-round maintenance. But this figure assumes that every square foot of land would have a bee-attractive flowering plant, and would not allow for the space taken by grasses, rock, asphalt, water, or non bee-attractive forbs, shrubs, or trees. So Pete's calculation of 60 acres per colony is likely close to the mark in areas with summer moisture. Even more acreage may be required in dry-summer areas. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html