74 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Then I suspected it must be the bees from 

 the yard. Upon examination I found 

 this to be the case. Right on top of the 

 hill, as they crossed it, they were only 

 eight or ten feet above the ground; not in 

 a very compact mass, but spread out per- 

 haps seven or eight rods; but the curious 

 thing about it was, that these bees flying 

 low were all loaded bees heading for the 

 yard, against quite a strong wind, while 

 up above them, twenty feel or higher, 

 was another stream of bees all going to- 

 wards the basswood in the valley beyond. 

 These upper bees were going a great deal 

 faster than the lower ones, and did not 

 appear so numerous. The man mention- 

 ed had not noticed these upper ones. It 

 was a curious sight, and one that I never 

 saw again, although I went there a num- 

 ber of times afterwards. 



Southern Minn. , Feb. 3, 1900. 



O S T L Y EXPERIENCE 

 COMES FROMHAvSTY VEN- 

 TURES IN UNKNOWN 

 FIELDS. BY W. O. VICTOR. 

 I have been much interested in the 

 articles on bee-hunting. They have 

 carried me back 

 to my first ex- 

 perience with 

 bees; to which 

 I attribute my 

 being in the 

 business. 



In 1883, (my ! 

 my ! 1 7 years 

 ago. ) when in 

 the timber look- 

 ing for a lost 

 horse, I found a 

 bee-tree; and at once decided that I 

 would have a fine evening's sport at the 

 bees' expense. Accordingly, I notified a 

 few of "the boys," and we rigged up a 

 two-horse farm-wagon, with spring seats, 

 loaded in our axes, pans, best girls, chap- 

 eron, etc., and hit the road in high places. 



^\ 



I remarked "that this is the best country 

 for bees I have ever seen." Some one 

 asked "how I knew ?" I replied: "Be- 

 cause the pan is full of honey even be- 

 fore we get to the tree." There was a 

 sudden movement and a vigorous 

 kick which sent the pan to tlie farth- 

 est part of the wagon, which revealed the 

 fact that my (at that time) best girl had 

 her feet right where we had intended 

 to put our honey. We went right on, 

 just as though the pan was all right; and 

 soon reached the tree. 



Axe in hand, each man took his turn, 

 and in short order we had ihe tree on 

 the ground, the bees in the air, and boys 

 and girls in the brush fanning — mosqui- 

 tos, to beat the mischief. .A.fter looking 

 vishfully for some time, frequently lick- 

 ing our lips to see if there was honey on 

 them, we sent a conmiitee to a nearby 

 negro's house for help. He promptly 

 came to our relief, and we soon had our 

 lips on the lucious sweets that disappear- 

 ed almost as suddenly as did the boys and 

 girls when the tree fell. 



Shortl}' after this I found a colony of 

 bees in some grape vines by the roadside, 

 as I was passing with my sewing 

 machines. }>.?, I was asewing machine 

 agent; having taken the agency as tem- 

 porary employment until I could decide 

 on a permanent business. 



I promptly made me a frame hive, and 

 went to hive them. I found they had 

 been there since spring (that was late in 

 summer, ) had comb, brood and honey, 

 and would not stay in my hive. I finally 

 hired a man to take them down; which 

 he did, and continued to do, until, one 

 by one, they were all des'.royed or driven 

 awa}'. By this time I had been stung 

 sez'ere/y; and had a red-hot bee-fever. 



A friend, seeing my sad condition, gave 

 me a colony of bees, in a nail keg. This, 

 however, did not give relief; so I bought 

 some 20 colonies in box hives in Colo- 

 rado county. The following spring I had 

 hives, frames and foundation ready. My 

 first foundation cost me #1.24 per pound, 

 express included. I -arranged to have 



