George Harold Edgell

“ The reward is when, after hours or days of trial and error, your eye catches the flash of wings in the tree and once more you are able to say checkmate in one of the most difficult, complicated, and fascinating games in the world. ”

“ Sometimes a tree will be so leaning, however, that there is no choice in the matter, and one must do the best one can. While the woodsmen are chipping the trunk and beginning to saw, the hunter should gather moss, the fronds of ferns, or other stuff to plug the hole when the tree is brought down. As the saw bites deeper and the scarf widens, the top of the tree will begin to sway. Now is the time for the hunter to don his veil and gloves. ”

“ Bees do not like to be painted. A good hunter can guess which bee is apt to be unreasonably phlegmatic and, especially if one is loading from a half empty cell, with the shoulders buried and his tail raised, he can be painted without disturbing him. Once daubed, the new decoration does not annoy him in the least and is not noticed by his fellows. When wet, the spot shows only slightly, but by the time the bee returns, the chalk dust will be dry and will stand out like a beacon so vivid that it can be spotted even before the bee alights. ”

“ No two bees have exactly the same idea as to the best way home. If, for example, there is a large tree in the direction of the hive and perhaps a hundred yards from the stand, one bee may bypass it to the right, another to the left, and a third may lift and go over it. One is constantly revising one’s decision as to the true line. ”

“ A few men have a rooted fear of bees and will be unavailable. The average lumberman, if promised reasonable protection, will come along and face the hard work for the fun. Taking up a bee tree is an exciting and thrilling performance. Lastly, bring plenty of receptacles for the honey. The humiliation of returning with five pounds of comb in a wash boiler is nothing as compared to the exasperation of filling a couple of buckets and finding you have no way of transporting the rest of the honey that is left in the tree. ”

“ The only danger to the amateur is that he lose his head and try to slap a bee that he thinks is dangerously near his face. If he does, he may be stung. He ought to be. It is worth repeating because to the newcomer it seems incredible. There is absolutely no danger of being stung while running a bee line.
As we draw nearer the tree, the moves are shorter and made more quickly. Now there is no worry about losing the line. Indeed, the bees not trapped will often follow the hunter on a short move and, as the imprisoned bees are released, others, arriving from behind, will drop on the comb. ”

“ In general, bees run better at the beginning and end of a honey flow when the flowers are not too profuse and too plentiful. Certainly if you are fortunate enough to catch a bee after heavy frosts, yet on a warm day, you will probably establish a roaring line in a short time. Why, however, sometimes bees will load eagerly and sometimes ignore the comb is a mystery. No changes in the thickness of the syrup, no substitution of true honey for the sugar, no aromatic oils like anise applied to the comb will cause bees to suck if they do not choose. ”

“ Bee hunting is one of the most fascinating of sports, and one could go on describing different [49] illuminating episodes for many pages. The sport combines almost everything that is desirable. It is played out of doors. It requires exercise both of the muscles and the brain. It is a sport of brawn and of craft. It can be played alone. ”

“ There, if one starts a line of bees, one can be sure it is a wild swarm. There are no farms with domestic bees in the area. Most hunters, however, have to hunt in country districts where there are farms, the owners of which may well keep bees. It will be wise, therefore, before going hunting, to ascertain the localities where tame bees are kept. Nothing is more frustrating than to start a line, get it going well, run it several moves, and end in a farmer’s backyard with the revelation that a hard day’s work has done no more than adulterate his honey with a half a pint of sugar syrup. ”

“ I knew better than to argue, but on the appointed time when he, my brother and I went to take up the tree, I brought two veils and two pairs of gauntlets. When we got to the tree I set about collecting dry stuff for a smudge, a matter which Smith said was quite unnecessary. I was downhill from the tree when he went to work. I heard the axe fall perhaps a half a dozen times, and then there was a siren-like wail of profanity, and Smith came charging through the woods, a stream of angry bees behind him like a comet’s tail. That was one swarm which defeated the intrepid Smith. ”

“ There is no point in going bee hunting if one can find no bees. Bees begin to work as soon as spring gets warm and continue until severe frost. This can be proved by examining any hive on any warm day, but what the bees are working on is another question. They are hard to find except during some definite honey flow such as the white clover season or the milkweed or the goldenrod. Especially the last two are favourable. On the bee box I have used for a good many years, I have scribbled the dates of the findings of fifty-six bee trees. ”

“ This is done by bringing the box up sharply under him with the lid open as he sits on the edge of a bloom and slapping the lid home as he tumbles into the box. It is not so hard as it sounds, especially if the bee is on a high bloom of milkweed or goldenrod. It is essential that the bee be caught. During the midst of a good honey flow a bee will never voluntarily abandon the flowers and go to a comb, no matter with what aromatic lure you may have anointed it. Forget for all time the accounts of writers who drench a handkerchief with anise and throw it over a bush near a stand with loaded comb. ”

“ The best is old, black comb from an old bee tree, but any empty comb will do. [9] For nectar it is not necessary to use real honey. A syrup of common white sugar one-third, and water two-thirds, boiled for fifteen minutes and then cooled, seems to be as tempting to bees as real honey. If one keeps it so long that it begins to ferment, no matter. Bees’ taste is not nice in such matters. Bees will cheerfully work the fermented juice of a rotten pear. As a refinement, it is well to provide oneself with a tiny bottle of the oil of anise. ”

“ If not, your New Hampshire farmer is usually a reasonable being if you treat him properly. A bee tree is not valuable. The mere fact that it has a hollow generally [44] proves that it is not commercially valuable for anything but firewood, and after it is felled, if the owner wants to work it up into firewood, he is at liberty to do so. A proper approach and the promise of a jar or two of honey will usually win you permission to take up the tree, and the owner will come along to watch the fun. ”

“ Even a good apiarist often loses a colony when his bees swarm at an inconvenient time, and the new colony may set up quarters not far from the old. For years I refrained from starting a line from my own lawn because of the presence a mile and a quarter away of a number of colonies belonging to a gentleman known as Chicken Smith. Chicken Smith’s bees used my flowers regularly. Then one day I decided to start a line anyway just for interest and found a wild swarm in my own sugar bush.
One question often asked is how much honey one gets from a bee tree. The amount varies enormously. ”

“ Once more you try and take his line but once more he fools you as he leaves in widening circles. However, one has got the general direction and can take a position to see better. More information comes as each bee leaves. In an hour’s time the comb may have twenty bees on it at once and the arrivals and departures are frequent. Now the bees have begun to be accustomed to the stand and frequently jump off and fly straight so that in a good light the eye can follow one for fifty or a hundred yards. Thus you establish your “bee line.” ”

“ If used sparingly, this will attract bees, and the faint odor on a bee’s feet will attract others. When I say sparingly, I mean more than the word ordinarily implies. The cork of the anise bottle rubbed on the comb and the comb then licked with the tongue will provide anise enough for one’s purpose. More will make the bees quite drunk, they will refuse to suck but buzz around looking for the anise and eventually retire to the flowers to sober up, and you will lose your line. To fill the comb, a common eye dropper is very handy though not absolutely necessary. ”

“ It is handy, too, to have a stand made of an upright piece of wood such as a four-foot section of a rake handle with a flat board nailed on top and the lower end sharpened so it can easily be thrust in the ground, but a stand can always be improvised using a young spruce cut off at the top or a few stones pilfered from a stone wall. It is also handy to have another small box with a lid, not a bee box, in which to carry small objects. The paraphernalia is therefore very simple, and a good bee hunter can get along if necessary with less. ”

“ In the first place, in order to reestablish a line, the stand should be set up in a clearing. We have now reached the woods and possibly no clearings are available. Released in the woods, a bee circles up into the trees and disappears. Sometimes it is hard to tell whether he goes forward or back. The moves have to be shorter. Often if one moves beyond the tree, the bees will not come back, and you have lost your line. Above all, the lining must be straight. If you meet a swamp, you must go through it. If you meet a cliff, you must go up it. ”

“ Often the tree makes trouble, has to be sawed several times, and the opening enlarged with the axe. As the crack widens under the impact of the wedges, the bees pour out, and the fight is on. They will attack viciously, and one is aware of the ping of bees dashing themselves against the wire netting of the veil. If one has taken proper precautions, one is safe, though, to be honest, one usually gets stung once or twice in taking up the tree. Humans vary in susceptibility to bee stings. ”

“ Let me illustrate with an amusing example. Three years ago I was bee hunting on the hills not far from my home in New Hampshire. I got a weak line nearly east and directly toward the little village of Croydon Flat. I decided that I must have got onto a tame swarm, though I could think of no one in Croydon Flat who kept bees. However, it was obviously time to try another area and I drove to the Flat and took a road northwest for a mile and a half, caught bees, and set up a stand. I got a weak line southeast, again directly toward Croydon Flat. ”

“ He borrowed my brother’s net and gloves, my brother went off and hid in the woods, and with net and glove protection and a smudge as well, we cut into the tree and took up the swarm. We got sixty pounds of honey.
In this article I have alluded many times to “taking up” a bee tree. The phrase may be colloquial, but it sticks. [41] Smith never cut a bee tree. He always “took it up.” Moreover, he always referred to a bee as “he.” I am well aware that a working bee is a sterile female, but I cannot bring myself to call it “she.” There is nothing feminine about a working bee but its anatomy. ”

“ The living thing that is the hive is extinguished, and the individual bees become mere insects doomed to winter destruction as are so many of the common flies. For the individual, the hunter has merely hastened dissolution by a little. He has killed the hive with the crash of the tree. ”

“ They will often suck eagerly in the midst of the heaviest goldenrod season and refuse to suck at other times when flowers are scarce. Nothing is more frustrating than to catch box after box of bees and find them unwilling to load. In such case there is nothing to do but wait a week and try again. The most important quality for a successful bee hunter is patience. ”

“ Moreover, if one could, there would be a good chance that bee number two came from another colony. One would get a line north and another northwest, and [30] where they met, there would be the tree. Nevertheless, cross lining should not be ruled out. Sometimes one will get a line too weak to be worth following. Trying in another place one may get another weak line that seems to cross at a distance the first. If one goes to about where the two seem to meet, there is a good chance that one will be near a bee tree. ”

“ Sometimes the bole splits at the hollow and nothing can be done about that. Usually the hole can be plugged, and one can take one’s time preparing to open the hollow.
The woodsmen now put on their nets and gloves, if indeed they have not done so just before felling the tree. All debate as to whether the hollow extends above or below the hole, often a matter of guesswork. Then the saw comes into play again. The lumbermen cut deep scarves above and below the area where the honey is supposed to be. When rotten wood (and at times honey!) shows on the blade, one can be sure the hollow is entered. ”

“ For every participant there should be a stout pair of linesman’s gauntlets. Wear old clothes, dungarees or old riding trousers. You are sure to get pretty well smeared with honey before you are done. Select a clear day or an overcast one, but not one with a threat of rain. If any water finds its way into the honey, it might as well be thrown away. It will surely ferment and spoil. You will need help, one or, better yet, two good woodsmen. In New Hampshire they are not hard to find. ”