The Bark Covered House: Or, Back In the Woods Again; Being a Graphic and Thrilling Description of Real Pioneer Life in the Wilderness of MichiganNowlin, William
History
The Bark Covered House: Or, Back In the Woods Again; Being a Graphic and Thrilling Description of Real Pioneer Life in the Wilderness of Michigan
Nowlin, William
Dearborn (Mich.); Frontier and pioneer life -- Michigan -- Dearborn
One way the bee-hunter took of finding bee trees was to go into the
woods, cut a sappling off, about four feet from the ground, square the
top of the stump and on this put a dish of honey in the comb. Then he
would take his ax, cut and clear away the brush around the place so that
he could see the bees fly and be able to get their course or line them.
This he called a bee stand. In the fall of the year, when there came a
warm, clear and sunny day, after the frost had killed the leaves and
flowers, and the trees were bare, was the best time to find bee trees.
Sometimes when father and I went bee-hunting he took some old honey comb,
put it on a piece of bark or on a log, set it on fire and dropped a few
drops of anise on it from a vial. If we were near a bee tree in a short
time a lone bee would come. When it came it would fly around a few times
and then light on the honey comb in the dish which it had scented. No
doubt, it had been out industriously hunting and now it had found just
what was desired. Very independently it would commence helping itself and
get as much as it could possibly carry off to its home. Then it went and,
no doubt, astonished some of its comrades with its large load of wealth.
It was obtained so quickly and easily and there was plenty more where it
came from. Then some of the other bees would accompany it back, all being
very anxious to help in securing the honey they had found ready made. In
a short time there were several bees in the dish and others were coming
and going; then it was necessary for us to watch them. It required sharp
strong eyes to get their line. They would rise and circle around, higher
and higher, until they made out their course and then start like a streak
straight for their colony. After we had staked or marked out the line the
next thing was to move the honey forty or fifty rods ahead. At this the
bees sometimes appeared a little suspicious. It was sometimes necessary
to make a few of them prisoners even while they were eating by slipping a
cover over them, and moving them ahead on the line. This made them a
little shy, however, but they soon forgot their imprisonment. They had
found too rich a store to be forsaken. After a little while they would
come flocking back and load themselves as heavily as before. If they flew
on in the same direction it was evident that the bee tree was still
ahead, and it was necessary to move the honey again. Then if the bees
flew crooked and high and zigzag it was plain to the bee-hunters that
they were in close proximity to the bee tree. When the hunters could get
sight of the bees going back or up towards the tree tops it was an easy
matter to find the bee tree, as that would be between the two stands or
right in the hunter's presence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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