PEPACTON 



Bees, like us human insects, have little faith in the 

 near at hand; they expect to make their fortune in 

 a distant field, they are lured by the remote and 

 the difficult, and hence overlook the flower and the 

 sweet at their very door. On several occasions 1 

 have unwittingly set my box within a few paces of 

 a bee-tree and waited long for bees without getting 

 them, when, on removing to a distant field or open- 

 ing in the woods, I have got a clew at once. 



I have a theory that when bees leave the hive, 

 unless there is some special attraction in some other 

 direction, they generally go against the wind. They 

 would thus have the wind with them when they 

 returned home heavily laden, and with these little 

 navigators the difference is an important one. 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 sup- 

 posed 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. I once found a tree a 

 long distance from any water, and the honey had 

 80 



