HUNTING AND HIVING WILD BEES, 13 
at altitudes in which they are often found. When the 
trees are short and small, it is not a difficult matter to 
see them ; but when the bees are 40 to 60 feet from the 
ground, it is another thing altogether. In any case, 
the way to find them is, when you have nothing to aid 
the naked eye, to get into the shadow of the tree, and 
walk slowly backward and forward so as to bring every 
point of its body and larger branches in range between 
the eye and the sun, looking at the sides of the tree just 
below the sun and outwardly, carefully and slowly. The 
bees will be seen very easily while in this position, and ap- 
pear quite large from the reflection of the sun’s rays strik- 
ing upon their wings. A good spy-glassis a great help, 
however, and by its aid one can readily determine whether 
bees are working in and out of a tree or not, even by look- 
ing over the top and sides of the branches, or through 
openings almost anywhere about the tree. 
Bees will work honey at any time, even in mid-sum- 
mer, if it be fresh from the hive. The way to set them at 
work in the summer season is, with a cup or box, with a 
cover, catch one at a time from the blossoms, set the cup 
on the stump of a tree, or other convenient point, till no 
humming is heard in the cup, when the cover is very 
carefully removed, and the bee allowed to get its fill of 
honey undisturbed. It is usual with bee-hunters to make 
a bee-box for hunting purposes, with a slide two inches 
from its bottom, so that the comb and honey may be shut 
out from the bees while catching and carrying them, to 
prevent their becoming besmeared with honey ; for when 
they do ever so little, there is no use trying to do any- 
thing with them, for they know as well as you can tell 
them, that honey is of no consequence so long as they can 
not get home with it. A bee-tree should never be cut, 
