So do you bees ma\e your honey, but not for yourselves. 
—Vergil: lines in Bathyllus 
XII 
HUNTING BEES 
N O SPORT is quite like that of “lining” bees— 
pursuing the honey bee to her home in the 
wilds. 
A commercial beekeeper, unless a real naturalist, 
is apt to acquire just sufficient practical knowledge 
with which to work successfully and use it mechan¬ 
ically in his beekeeping manipulations—his attitude 
being somewhat that of a superior being who guides 
the activities of his laborers, using them as tools for 
his own purposes. 
But a bee-hunter sees the honey bee working out 
her own destiny and though he may capture her 
and her colony he has had a glimpse into her free 
and natural mode of life and must marvel anew at 
her adaptability. 
James Fenimore Cooper wrote a story called Oa\ 
Openings . The scene is laid in Michigan on the 
shores of the Kalamazoo River just before the War 
of 1812, when there was much unsettled territory 
traversed only by Indians, hunters, and traders. 
The central figure in the novel is the bee-hunter, 
