148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1920 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



he returns ■with a considerable number from the 

 hive) observinsr very carefully the course of the 

 bee there, for aft«r he rises in the air, he flies di- 

 rectly on a straight course to the tree where the 

 hive is. 



For this purpose the hunter carries -with him a 

 pocket compass, his rule and other implements with 

 a sheet of paper; and sets down the course, suppos- 

 iua: it west, or any other point, and by this he is 

 sure the tree must be somewhere in a west line 

 from where he is ; but he wants to know the exact 

 distance from his station: In order to determine 

 that, he makes an offer either north or south (sup- 

 pose north) an hundred perches or rods (if it be 

 more, it will be still more exact ; because the angle 



B«.-n«*. 



p«. 



Quaint illustration of the old-time plan of locating 



bee-trees. 

 wiU not be so acute) then he lets go another bee, 

 observing his course also very carefully ; for_ this 

 bee being loaded, will, as the first (after he is 

 mounted to a convenient height) fly directly to the 

 hive; this second course (as it must be called) the 

 hunter finds to be south 54 degrees west; then 

 there remains nothing but to find out, where the two 

 courses intersect or, which is the same thing, the 

 distance from B to A or from C to A for there 

 the honey tree is. For which reason, if the course 

 of the second bee from C had been South west by 

 south, viz. to D ; then the hive tree must have been 

 there; for there the lines are found to intersect. 



All this is founded on the straight or direct mo- 

 tion of tees when bound home with their honey, and 

 this is found to be certain by the observation and 

 experience of the hunters every year ; especially, 

 since this mathematical way of finding honey in the 

 woods has teen used with such success. 



An ingenious man of my acquaintance the last 

 year took two or three of his neighbors that knew 

 nothing of the matter, and after he had taken his 

 bees, set the courses the first and second bees steer- 

 ed, made the off-set. and, taken the distances from 

 the two stations to the intersection, he gave orders 

 to cut down such a tree, pointing to it; the laborers 

 smiled^ and were confident there was no honey 

 there, for they could not perceive the tree to be 

 hollow, or to have any hole for the bees to enter by, 

 and would have dissuaded the gentleman from fell- 

 ing the tree, but he insisted on it and offered to lay 

 them any wager that the hive was there, and so it 

 proved, to the great surprise of the country-men. 



.\11 the bees they have in their gardens or woods, 

 and which are now in great numbers, are the pro- 

 duio of such as weie brought iu hives from Eng- 

 land, near a hundred years ago, and not the natural 

 produce of this part of America; for, the first 

 planters in New England never observed a bee in 

 the woods, till many years after the country was 

 settled: But what proves it beyond dispute is, 

 that the Aborigines (the Indians) have no word in 

 their language for a bee, as they have for all ani- 

 mals whatever proper to, or aboriginally of the 

 country ; and, therefore, for many years called a 

 bee by the name of Englishman's fly. 



Tliey formerly used to find out honey in the 

 woods_ by surprising and following one bee after 

 another by the eye, till at Itngth they found out 

 where the bees hived. It is observable, that when 

 bees swarm, they never go to the northward, but to 

 the southward, or to a point inclining that way. 

 Miss Josephine Morse. 



So. Lancaster, Mass. 



Gf= 



BEEKEEPING IN FRANCE 



The Quaint and Queer Beehives Seen by an 

 American Soldier 



In southern France at the little village of 

 St. Morillon, about 20 kilometers south of 

 Bordeaux, my battalion was stationed for 

 a three-weeks' training in machine-gun 

 maneuvers. Between work I chanced upon 

 six old-fashioned basket hives. These were 

 about three feet high, eighteen inches 

 across the bottom, and tapered up to a point 

 at the top. The baskets were made of wil- 

 low sprouts woven closely together, and the 

 bees completed the job loy filling the small 

 openings between the wea\Ting with propolis. 

 The hives were protected from the rain by 

 sheaves of straw jammed down over the 

 point of the basket and were placed on 

 wooden stands, a small opening for the en- 

 trance being cut out of the bottom of the 

 basket. It was summer, and the bees were 

 working quite industriously. I couldn 't re- 

 sist the temptation to peek inside; so I care- 



Fig. 1. — The writer in a French apiary near Chnn- 



ville, France, 

 fullj' lifted one of the baskets. I say care- 

 ful^, for I didn 't know what kind of a dis- 

 position a French bee has. The bees were 

 clustered over the comb and had a goodly 



