Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

BEE HUNTING 357known, for different distances. But honey is muchthicker, heavier, and more sticky than the nectar thatbees gather from flowers, the latter being little morethan sweetened water plus aroma. Consequentlyit takes the bees longer to fill up on honey, theystagger with it in their flight, and it takes longerto discharge their cargo.So the hunter will set out a bait of, say, dilutedhoney to which a drop of oil of anise has been added.Bees will smell such an enticing odor for a mile ormore. In any case, the object is first to capturesome wild bees as guides. The way to managethem after they are caught Is to be described later.Nectar.—Early sweets are gathered by beesfrom the bloom of all kinds of fruit-bearing treesand plants, from violets, hepaticas, and otherflowers. In May the busy insects forage on theclematis, dandelion, honey locust, tulip or ''yellov^rpoplar." The locust bears nectar only at intervalsof several years, but the big blossoms of the tuliptree are commonly rich in it—so rich that sometimesthe nectar can be dipped out wnth a spoonas well as in pollen, which is a necessity to thebee. That unhappily imported weed among ourtrees, the ailanthus or *'tree of heaven," is anotherfavorite of the bees, despite its—ill-smelling blossoms.Through the summer months there is almost asurfeit of sweets for the honey-maker: boneset,borage, bugloss, white clover, coralberry, figwort,goldenrod, milkweed, motherwort, mustard, rape,sage, Spanish needle, spider-flower, sumac, sunflower,teasel, willow-herb—a legion of others—and, favoredof all in forested regions, the cream-coloredblossoms of the linden or basswood.theThe West has a famous nectar-bearer calledRocky Mountain bee-plant.In the South, the beesof the lowlands use the cotton plants; those of themountains, where there is a bewildering varietyof ''honey-bloom/' seek by preference the Imdenand the delightfully aromatic blossoms of the sourwood.