A BEE HUNT. 



EDWARD E. ROY. 



In August Recreation F. S. Tufts, of 

 Winchester, Mass., asks how to trace wild 

 bees to their hives. Take an ordinary 

 chaik box, about 4x8x4 inches, with a 

 slide cover; cut a 2-inch square hole in 

 cover; fasten a piece of glass on under 

 side to let in light; put in bottom of box 

 a piece of honeycomb about 4 inches 

 square, and you have a bee box. Next fill 

 a pint bottle half full of granulated sugar 

 and fill up with water. Let it dissolve and 

 add 10 drops of oil of anise. You are then 

 ready for work. Never keep this mixture 

 until it sours. Always make new. This 

 we call dope. Always wear a felt hat, as 

 it holds scent longer. Treat the hat to 25 

 drops of oil of anise, and pour some dope 

 on the comb in the box. 



I would advise a beginner to knock the 

 bee into the box with the cover; then slip 

 the cover on and put your hat on the glass 

 to darken the box. In a moment or 2 the 

 bee will begin to suck the dope. As soon 

 as he does, take the cover off from the 

 box. When he is loaded and leaves the 

 box the first few times he will fly in a 

 circle, but after he has made 5 or 6 trips 

 he will make a bee line from the box to 

 the tree. By that time you may have 25 or 

 30 bees to watch, instead of one, because 

 of the oil of anise in your dope. The mo- 

 ment the first bee deposits his first load the 

 other bees scent the anise, and 2, 3 or 

 more follow him. The oftener they come 

 the more bees you have. There are 2 ways 

 to line a bee. One is to watch which way 

 he goes from the box, and the other to 

 which side of the box he comes back. He 

 will always go over the box from the tree 

 and turn back to the box. The best way to 

 watch them is to lie on the ground and 

 observe one bee as he leaves the box. If 

 you have 2 lines or more the bees will 

 fight on leaving the box. When there are 

 15 or 20 bees working in the box, slide the 

 cover on and shut them up. Take your 

 box due south about 40 rods, set it on a 

 high stump, and open it. Bees go like a 

 flash up in the air, in circles. No one 

 could follow them, but soon they come 

 one at a time back to the box. They will 

 not miss you if you take the box from one 

 place to another. They all go back to 

 where the box was, and then follow in a 

 zigzag tack on your trail. When they get 

 settled again and are working well out of 

 the box, make another move. 20 or 30 

 rods on the line, until you observe that 

 the bees go back North instead of South. 

 Then box them and make a set-off 20 rods 

 to the East. Your line will then run West. 



Sight your South line and your West line 

 together, and you have run your bees 

 home. You can tell when you are close to 

 a tree by the number of bees you have 

 working. If bees work fast there is not 

 much honey in the tree, but if slowly, make 

 up your mind their tree is full. 



If a bee alights on your face or hand 

 let him alone. He will not sting unless 

 you fight him, and then you generally get 

 the worst of it. 



In October, 1895, my friend Kin and I 

 started for a bee hunting trip, which lasted 

 9 weeks. One day we ran across an old 

 man and 2 boys making hoops. They were 

 much interested in our scheme, so we in- 

 vited them to go out with us that night 

 to see us cut a bee tree. We took with us 

 some sulphur sticks, made by winding a 

 rag around the end of a pine stick and 

 soaking it in hot sulphur. One of these 

 sticks lighted and put in a tree will kill all 

 the bees. We also took an ax, a saw, 3 

 lard cans, and a bundle of dry wild grass. 

 When we reached the tree Kin said to the 

 old man, 



"We have to climb this tree and light a 

 sulphur stick. The bees are only up about 

 15 feet." 



Both the young fellows wanted to go 

 up, but the old man insisted on climbing. 

 Said it would remind him of the days 

 when he was a sailor. We put the 

 lantern on a pole, and I held it up so 

 the old man could see where the bees went 

 in. Kin told him to light the sulphur and 

 jab it in the hole. The minute he struck 

 a match a bee struck the end of his nose, 

 and how many more bees found him we 

 were never able to learn; but down the 

 tree he came like a red squirrel, and I 

 never heard a man swear as he did. I have 

 heard lumber Jacks in Northern Michigan 

 swear by note, but they wouldn't stand as 

 much show against that old man as a duck 

 would with 20 game hogs. His 2 boys 

 began to make fun of him, and Kin and 1 

 laughed so hard we could not pull the 

 saw. 



Finally we got the tree down. We tied 

 the legs of our trousers tightly around our 

 shoetops, and our coat sleeves around our 

 wrists, so no bees could get under our 

 clothing. It was always my lot to have to 

 take the honey away from about 2 bushels 

 of those mad devils. Kin took one side of 

 the tree and I the other. We sawed about 

 halfway through, above and below where 

 we thought the honey was, and I took the 

 ax to split out the slab of wood and let 

 the bef 1< = out. Kin told one of the boys to 



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