Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1881 — Wild Honey. [ARTICLE]

Wild Honey.

Kingston (If. Y."> freeman. ' _ It wfi], soon be time for these, who love to make a business of hunting bee-trees to start out on their expeditions. Onoe this kind of business was quite lucrative. Bee-trees could be found after 1 a little work almost anywhere in the woods. They are usually well filled, and if a man could manage to discover one tree a week he could oonafder himself earning good wages. Now anfTthen, while following a trail or bee-line, two trees have been traced out, bnt this is very rare. A gentleman last night, an old bee-hunter, told a story how he onoe took some honey out in the Woods, warmed it on stones, then left it there as a sort of feeding place for the bees, and a day or tWo afterward noted the direction in which they went offer loading themselves, ana by following them some distance found there were two lines of bees running parallel to each other. In about three nours be found one tree, marked it, and then again set out his honey. In a short time be took -the other line for the other tree. He hunted and

hunted for a long-time without success. Finally reaching a cliff of rocks, while trying to pi/’k his way down, he accidentally slipped and slid to the bottom. Somewhat stunned, he lay a few minutes, and looking up to see how far he had come,lo! and behold his experienc, ed eye saw bees going in and out of a hole in a tree within a few feet from him. From these two trees he took eighty or ninety pounds of honey,with a considerable quantity of beeswax, and considered it one of the most successful hunts he had ever had. Besides honey, there is used in bee-hnnting a strong flavor of young clover, as it is called, of which the bees, seemingyl, are fonder than of honey Itself, The proper way to trace bees is to heat a stone, drop honey on it, have the comb near by, and the heated honey will immediately draw the bees, who will then find the comb and proceed to load themselves with it and return to their homes. It requires a sharp eye to follow the line, but the term a bee line is well-known to be a line straight aa an arrow, and all the bee bun ter has to do is to get the coarse of th i bee and follow it straight until be has reached the vicinity of the tree, as near as he /An judge, after which h« will try his honey again, and so tell whether l.e has not yet reached or gone by. Home hunters select bee, throw flour over him, and then by. noting the time it requires for that bee to unload himself and return, get a good idea of the distance. There are a number old bee hunters living up town who can recite bee-tree yarns by the week.