P> RE-HUNTING 
97 
BEEBREAD. —A term in common use, 
applied to pollen when stored in the combs. 
In olden times (and in parts of the South 
yet) bees were killed with sulphur to get 
the honey, more or less pollen being usually 
found mixed with the honey; it has some¬ 
thing of a “bready” taste, and hence, prob¬ 
ably, came its name. Since the advent of the 
extractor and section boxes, it is very rare 
to find pollen in the honey designed for 
table use. See Pollen. 
BEE-DRESS.— See Veils. 
BEE-ESCAPES.— See Comb Honey, 
also Extracting. 
BEE-HUNTINC. —In some localities 
wild bees are located in hollow trees, crev¬ 
ices in rocks, between the walls of build¬ 
ings and under cornices of buildings. The 
art of bee-hunting, however, is usually con¬ 
fined to the locating and capturing of bees 
in bee-trees. 
The reader is given the warning so 
often, against leaving sweets of any kind 
about the apiary, and about being careful 
not to let the bees get to robbing each 
other, that it may seem strange for us to 
tell how best to encourage and develop 
this very robbing propensity. 
The only season in which one can trap 
bees is when they will rob briskly at home; 
for while honey is to be found in the flow¬ 
ers in plenty, they will hardly deign to no¬ 
tice bait of even honey in the comb. Be¬ 
fore starting out, it will be policy to learn 
if there are any bees kept in the vicinity, 
for one might otherwise waste much time 
in following lines that lead into the hives 
of his neighbors. The hunter should 
be at least a mile from any one who has 
a colony of bees when he commences opera¬ 
tions, and it is safer to be two miles. This 
does not mean that there are no bee-trees 
near large apiaries, for a number will often 
be found within half a mile of one’s own: 
but those who are just learning would, 
very likely, be much perplexed and both¬ 
ered by lining bees that proved to be his 
neighbor’s. 
LINING THE BEES. 
Perhaps the readiest means of doing 
this is to catch the bees that will be found 
on the flowers, especially in the early part 
4 
of the day. They should be induced to 
take a sip of the honey brought for that 
purpose, and they will, true to their in¬ 
stinctive love of gain, speed homeward 
with their load, soon to return for an¬ 
other. To find the tree, it is necessary to 
watch and see where they go. 
The bee-hunter can get along with very 
simple implements; but, if time is valua¬ 
ble, it may pay 'to go out fully equipped. 
For instance, a small glass tumbler will an¬ 
swer to catch bees; and after one has been 
caught, the glass can be set over a piece 
of honeycomb. It should now be covered 
with a handkerchief to stop the bee’s buz¬ 
zing against the glass, when it will soon 
discover the honey and load up. As soon 
as it is really at work on the honey, the 
glass should be raised and the bee-hunter 
should creep away where he may get a 
good view of the proceedings. As soon as 
it takes wing it will circle about the honey, 
as a young bee does in front of the hive, 
that it may know where to return: for a 
whole “chunk” of honey, during the dry 
autumn days, is apparently quite a little 
gold mine in its estimation. There may. 
perhaps, be a thousand or more hungry 
mouths to feed, away in the forest in its 
leafy home. 
If one is quick enough to keep track of 
the bee’s eccentric circles and oscillations, 
he will see that these circles become larger 
and larger, and that each time the bee 
comes around it sways to one side; that is. 
instead of making the honey the center of 
its circles, it makes it almost on one edge, 
so that the last few times the bee comes 
around it simply comes back after it has 
started home, and throws a loop, as it were, 
about the honey to make sure of it for the 
last time. Now one can be pretty sure 
which way its home lies almost the very 
first circuit it makes, for it has its home in 
mind all the time, and bears more and more 
toward it. 
If the bee-hunter can keep his eye on the 
bee until it finally takes the “bee line” 
for home, he does pretty well, but a be¬ 
ginner can seldom do this. After the bee is 
out of sight, the observer has only to wait 
until it comes back, which it will surely do, 
if honey is scarce. Of course, if its home 
is near by it will get back soon; and to 
determine how far it is by the length of 
