246 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



[M.AY, 



some honey with us. The tree may be in a hard 

 l^lace to find, Ave may be a long time about it, 

 and in the meantime we may have bees at work 

 by the hundred, perhaps by the thousand. They 

 will carry our honey away rapidly, and therefore 

 we must take plenty of it with us— five or six 

 pounds at least. If they carry it all away we 

 shall get it again when we cut the tree. If we 

 take this honey into the woods and leave it for 

 the bees to find, they may find it to-day, or they 

 may not find it before to-morrow, or even the 

 next day. We cannot hunt to-mcrrow; we 

 must hunt to-day. How shall we fetch the bees 

 to it ? Drumming on a liollow log will sometimes 

 attract bees. Anise oil is often used for the 

 same purpose. But we prefer the smoke from 

 burning honey comb, and we will use it ; but to 

 do so we must have fire. 



We can build a fire in the woods, but we may 

 want it in several places. It would take a great 

 deal of time to build them, and it is now some- 

 time after noon. We must find that tree to-day, 

 and cannot fool away time in building fires. In- 

 stead of that we will take this old ash pail, put 

 a shovel full of ashes in the bottom, then one of 

 live coals, and cover these with warm ashes. It 

 would last us half a day, perhaps all day, and we 

 want it to last till the tree is lound, and wish to 

 have it just where and right where we want to 

 use it, without loss of time. 



We are now armed and equij^ped for the hunt. 

 We go to the woods, and for the first stand select 

 an opening where there is nothing to hinder our 

 "lining" bees as they leave it. To burn for 

 smoke we choose a piece of comb moist with 

 honey and containing some "bee bread. It will 

 last longer and make a better smoke than dry 

 comb. For convenience in Hiving we will put 

 the honey on this bush, up four or five feet from 

 the ground. We must now await for bees, and 

 while we are waiting we will sit down on this 

 log and talk bee. We are hunting bees to-day, 

 our minds are on our business, and we can't talk 

 on any other subject. 



Bees can talk as well as we can. They have a 

 language of their own, one which although we 

 may not always understand it, is to them perfectly 

 intelligible. For example, watch a swarm when 

 it issues, catch and confine the queen. The bees 

 commence a search for her, at first near the hive, 

 afterwards further from it, and before the search 

 is given up they will be scattered over the yard, 

 perhaps over a space of twenty rods or more 

 square. Now release the queen, and let her fly 

 among them, and the scene changes at once. 

 The noise made by the flying bees is different. 

 By it the intelligence is quickly communicated 

 from one bee to another that the queen is found, 

 and in a few moments the whole of this scattered 

 swarm is collected in a dense flying mass around 

 her. Was there no talking there ? Take another 

 illustration, where the talking is on a different 

 subject. Let a loaded bee enter a hive, and it 

 will tell. 



But, hark ! there's a bee ! It has found the 

 honey and is filling its honey-sac. Now that 

 bee will not be satisfied with going home with 

 one load, but will return for more, and in order 

 to know where to return to when it leaves, and 



it is now leaving the stand, it will mark the 

 location by surrounding objects, precisely the 

 same as it did when it first left the tree, but in 

 so doing it has described so many circles, and 

 gone so high in the air that we have lost sight of 

 it, and have fiiiled in getting a line. We must 

 wait for its return. When that bee enters the 

 tree it will tell othei's there that there is honey 

 to be found, and they will come out in search of 

 it. Not only so, but when it leaves it, it will 

 tell with its wings in what direction it is found. 

 You may l)lindfold an old experienced apiarian, 

 Mr. Langstroth, for example, take him into a 

 yard where bees are robbing, and he knows it at 

 once by the "note" of the robbing bees. The 

 note is very different, on a much higher key than 

 that of bees at ordinary labor. The note of this 

 bee is precisely the same. Other bees follow it, 

 and if the tree is not too far off some of them will 

 follow it to the stand. There it comes again, 

 and two more with it. It has been gone only a 

 short time ; long enough, we think, to go about 

 half a mile and return. 



How long will it take a bee to fly half a mile? 

 I am sorry I cannot answer your question. I 

 have watched thousands of them, but have never 

 timed it. When I am waiting for a bee to re- 

 turn, I am anxious, and want to be at work. 

 The time then seems much longer than it really 

 is, and if I .should hazard a guess it might be far 

 from correct. The time will vary too with the 

 weather. A bee will go a mile and return sooner 

 on a warm day than on a cool one, and sooner 

 on a still day than on a windy one — all of which 

 must be taken in account in guessing at distance. 

 Our bee is going again and we must watch it. 

 The location was marked the first time it left, 

 this time it describes only a few circles before it 

 leaves for home. There it goes, straight north, 

 and we have the line. 



Ll.vE. 



H Stand No. 3. 



Stand No, 



I Stand No. 1. 



