Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

BEE HUNTING 355look, and what to do when he finds the bees, allaccording to the season of the year and the lay ofthe land.Spring.—The easiest time to find a bee-tree isearly in the spring, or late in the fall, because thenthere is no nectar for the bees and they will takekindly to bait; also, because then there are no leaveson the trees to interfere with the hunter's vision,Of course, it is poor policy to rob a beehive inspring, for what honey is left will be old, darkcolored, and not so well flavored as new honey ; butthis is a good time to mark the bee-tree for futureattack. The methods for spring and summer huntingare different ; so I will describe them in sequence.In the first warm days of spring, while there still^s snow on the ground, a hive may sometimes belocated by listening for the humming of the beesin their cleansing flight, and by looking for deadbees on the snow, under likely looking trees, w^herethey have been dropped by workers in cleaning thehive. But, as a rule, it will be necessary to findwhere the bees are collecting early sweets, or, indefault of this, to lure them to bait specially preparedfor the purpose.As soon as the sap of the sugar maple begins torise, which may be as early as the middle of Februaryif the season is forward, but commonly islater, the bee hunter goes among the maples andbirches. Wherever a gash or bruise in the bark letsthe sap ooze out, or "bleed," as he calls it, he mayfind bees at work. The sap flows best on a warmday following a freezing night. A regular beehunter will purposely wound a number of trees indifferent localities, in anticipation oi this.Early in March he looks for skunk-cabbage,which, by the way, is not the only malodorous thingthat bees frequent at this season. Toward themiddle or end of ]\Iarch the willow catkins attracta buzzing throng.In April the beech and some otthe maples are in bloom and fragrant with sweets.