Bee hunter

“ The bee hunter is generally some settler on the verge of the prairies; a long, lank fellow, of fever and ague complexion, acquired from living on new soil, and in a hut built of green logs. In the autumn, when the harvest is over, these; frontier settlers form parties of two or three, and prepare for a bee hunt. ”

“ When a native sees a bee about the flowers, and wishes to find the honey, he repairs to the nearest pool, selects a spot where the bank shelves very gradually, lies on his face, fills his mouth with water, and patiently awaits the arrival of a bee. These insects require a considerable amount of moisture, as every one knows who has kept them, and the bee-hunter reckons on this fact to procure him the honey which he desires. ”

“ One might tell it to be a bee’s nest, if his attention were called to it; for the bark around the entrance, like that of the squirrel’s, is always discoloured, in consequence of the bees alighting upon it with their moist feet. But then one may travel a long while through the woods before chancing to notice this. Bee-trees are sometimes found by accident; but the regular bee-hunter does not depend upon this, else his calling would be a very uncertain one. There is no accident in the way he goes to work. ”

“ During a starvation period when flowers are scarce, especially after the autumnal frosts, a bee will light on the comb if he finds it. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, however, the bees will be somewhere else and no bee will find the comb. There have been exceptions as I shall show, but the only sensible procedure is to hunt bees during a honey flow when they are easy to find, and introduce them into the box by violence. ”

“ If the two lines tend toward each other, he concludes that the angle at which they meet is the point where the hive is to be found. Judging of the distance by the skill acquired by practice, the hunter proceeds to the spot, and seldom fails of finding the honey which he seeks pretty near the place which his calculations have indicated.
The scientific bee-hunter sometimes adopts the following method: he places some bee-bread, in order to tempt the bees, on a flat board or tile, and draws a circle round it with white paint. The bee always settles upon the edge of anything flat ”

“ The bee hunters in my early days used one of two methods in hunting the bee. The hunter would select a clear day, generally during buckwheat bloom, and after determining on a course, sun them to the tree. This was done by placing the hat or hand between the eye and sun as close to the light as the eye would permit. If the hunter knew the difference between the flight of a loaded bee and an unloaded one he would keep on the course until the tree was located. ”

“ Every bee hunter knows how much steadier a bee flies after they have the bait well located.
After the camp was well completed and a good pile of wood cut we gave our attention to the bees. We soon located two lines, one going nearly east while the other went nearly south. I told Smoky to take his hatchet and go across the creek some 50 rods and make an opening or a stand about half way between the two lines, or about southeast from the stand, and when he had it ready, to call to me and I would bring the bees over and we could get a cross line and locate nearly the tree that the bees were in. ”

“ The bee always settles upon the edge of anything flat, so she must travel through the paint to reach the bee-bread. When she flies away, the white on her body enables the observer to trace her flight, and her course is marked down with a pocket compass. The same thing is done at another spot, some distance from the first, and by comparing the direction of the two lines, the situation of the nest is easily found, as it must be at the point, where, if continued, the lines would meet. In Africa, the bee hunter is aided by a little bird called the honey guide. ”

“ The smoke of the boiling wax and honey serves the bees cruising over the prairie as a guide to the paper, and soon the busy gatherers arrive from all the bee-trees in the neighbourhood, load themselves as heavily as they can, and then go straight home in a direct line. The hunter now observes in which direction the greatest number of the insects swarm, because this leads him to expect a richer tree as well as a shorter distance to go. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There are customs in vogue among sportsmen that have been handed down from generation to generation, that have almost become laws. Indeed, we have heard it said that custom becomes law.
A hunter may wound a deer, follow it for a distance and find that another hunter has shot and killed it. The question might arise as to whom the deer belonged. A bee hunter may find a bee tree and mark it and some other hunter might find it afterwards and cut it. ”

“ In the woods, the hunter must stop, every little while, to test his "line." Sometimes he is baffled, because the bees do not know the woods from the ground side. Bees hunt for honey far from home. Usually it is easier to find a tree half a mile away than from only a few yards. Since bees like water, a careful hunter looks along creeks and near springs. Wild honey is better than tame because it tastes of the adventure of finding it. Second Outline of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee" The presence of a colony of bees in a wood gives it interest. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Those so constituted had better stop at home when a tree is taken up.
Once the fight is on it is well to get at the honey as soon as possible. Once the comb is well broken, the bees lose most of their fight. They will dash around in a bewildered way, bunch up on a bush, gorge themselves with spilled honey, and generally give evidence that the spirit of the hive is dead. Only a few doughty fighters will continue the battle. The comb will be in layers, up and down the length of the hollow, sometimes in pieces two or two and one-half feet long, with spaces between to admit the workers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The hunter in America takes advantage of this clear sight and of this strength of wing when, he lines a bee to its nest, by alluring one to a bait of honey within a circle of wet white paint, watching the subsequent flight, letting off another, similarly secured, at right angles to that, and looking for the nest at the intersection of the two white lines. ”

“ Going to a field or wood at a distance from tame bees with their box of honey, they gather up from the flowers and imprison one or more bees, and after they have become sufficiently gorged, let them out to return to their home with their easily gotten load. Waiting patiently a longer or shorter time, according to the distance of the bee-tree, the hunter scarcely ever fails to see the bee or bees return accompanied by other bees, which are in like manner imprisoned till they in turn are filled ”

“ 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. ”

“ With a full cargo, a stiff head-wind is a great hindrance, but fresh and empty-handed they can face it with more ease. Virgil says bees bear gravel stones as ballast, but their only ballast is their honey-bag. Hence, when I go bee-hunting, I prefer to get to windward of the woods in which the swarm is supposed to have refuge.
Bees, like the milkman, like to be near a spring. They do water their honey, especially in a dry time. The liquid is then of course thicker and sweeter, and will bear diluting. Hence old bee-hunters look for bee-trees along creeks and near spring runs in the woods. ”

“ The bee-hunters start from the low country, and spend weeks in the jungle in collecting the honey and wax. When looking over an immense tract of forest from some elevated point, the thin blue lines of smoke may be seen rising in many directions, marking the sites of the bee-hunters fires. Their method of taking the honey is simple enough. The bees' nests hang from the boughs of the trees, and a man ascends with a torch of green leaves, which creates a dense smoke. ”

“ After determining on the course the same tactics are pursued until we arrive at the tree, or, if we have good reason to believe the bee stands in any certain group of trees and we fail to find the tree, to make sure that our ideas are correct we will move our bait off to one side of the original course and thus get a cross course, and at the junction of the first line of flight and this second line, the bees must certainly have their home. We must look at every tree with the utmost care, for it is a very easy matter to overlook a bee tree, even experienced bee hunters have done this. ”

“ Laden with honey, they rise into the air and dart off in a straight line with almost the velocity of a bullet. The hunters watch attentively the course they take, and set off in the same direction, still watching the course of the bees. In this way the tree where the bees have made their home is reached. But it will often happen, as may be suspected, that the bees will elude the sight of the most vigilant hunter, and the party may wander about without succeeding in finding any treasure. ”

“ If you use clear honey the bees will take up much time cleaning their legs and wings; it is too thick and sticky for good work. A light staff five feet in length, sharp - 226 - at one end and with a piece of thin board, say eight inches square, nailed to the other end, comprises your working outfit, except a good glass.
You are now ready for the field. A hilly pasture is an ideal place for bee hunting, when it is surrounded by woodland. Waste lands, where fire has killed the trees, and goldenrod grows abundantly, will be found to be the best location of all. ”

“ With the whole garden alive with flashing wings, and resounding with the rich deep hubbub of the swarm, the bees forming the remnant of the old colony go about their usual business in perfect unconcern, lancing straight off into the sunshine towards the clover-fields, or winging busily homeward laden with honey and pollen, just as they have been doing for weeks past. And if the hive be opened at this time, it will show nothing unusual except that no queen will be found. ”

“ THE BEES’ ENEMIES BEES have many enemies, apart from robber bees, who try to steal their honey. In winter-time, when pressed by hunger, certain birds come to a bee-hive and commence tapping on the alighting-board. Of course some of the bees come to the door to see what is the matter, and no sooner do they appear on the threshold than the sharp little birds grab them in their beaks, and so make a meal. Birds often catch the bees as they are gathering nectar in the fields, and no one knows how many perish in this way. ”

“ The former observes also, that bees never sting but in the neighbourhood of their property, unless hurt; that they never contend with each other for honey, unless it be placed within the boundary of their own right,—but that what they have collected they defend. The indisposition of bees to attack or be angry at a distance has been confirmed by Mr. Knight, who says, that, though the most irritable of animals near home, he has seen them suffer themselves to be patiently robbed of their loads by other bees, and that he has witnessed this in the same bee three times in succession. ”