HOW TO GET THE BEES 69 



few feet and crouches down so as not to 

 be in the line of flight of the bees if they 

 should chance to come in his direction. 

 Also by taking a position lower than the 

 hunting box he can more readily observe 

 the bees as they fly for they are outlined 

 against the sky. 



As soon as a bee has taken on as large 

 a load of the diluted honey as it can com- 

 fortably carry it will rise from the box, 

 make a few circles and then suddenly dart 

 off in a direct line toward its hive. This 

 line of flight is so straight that by fol- 

 lowing it with his eye the hunter can tell 

 the exact direction of the home of that 

 particular bee. While he has the direc- 

 tion he, of course, can not know the dis- 

 tance and to obtain some idea of this he 

 must now change his position to a suffi- 

 cient extent that he can get a "cross line" 

 on the first flight. The point where the 

 two lines come together is probably the 

 position of the hive or tree in which the 

 bees live. This method of locating bee- 



