Adventures in Natural Beekeeping

Posted in Hives, Log hives, Natural Beekeeping | Tagged beekeeping, Feral bees, honey bees, log hive | 2 Comments

2 Responses

1. on April 23, 2012 at 7:14 pm | Reply 56BSA

   Great video! Reminds me of the bee hunters in the early 1800’s
   described in Tammy Horn’s book Bees In America.

   “The honey hunters became a legend. Men that pushed the boundaries of the frontier, one foot in the wild,one foot in civilization, independent, isolated, and loving only the order of the hive.
   A bee hunter named Gideon Lincecum wandered through the Texas Republic in 1835.”
   ‘I lived plentifully all the while…..Every time I found honey I would have a feast of the first order. I would kill a deer and broil the backstraps of a deer on the coals,
   dip the point of the done meat into the honey, and seize it in my teeth and saw it off with my knife. That’s the best and most pleasant way to eat it. have often thought that there could be no other meal for a man that is so suitable, so agreeable to his constitution.’

   “Of these legendary honey hunters, Tom Owen stood out as much for what he didn’t do as for what he could do. Owen did not lure bees to a flour covered plate and then follow them the way his peer did. The process, which is still used in some parts today, is called ‘coursing’ a bee, and because the bee is covered with flour, a hunter can easily follow it back to the colony. Instead, Tom Owen depended entirely upon eyesight to find trees over a mile away. Owen claimed ‘those clever little beasts have their set ways. One has only to watch the air current. When they go out foraging, they always fly against the wind, then the breeze helps them carry home their heavy load.”

   
   
   • on April 23, 2012 at 8:20 pm | Reply solarbeez

     I can’t imagine being able to follow a bee back to the hive. Tom Owen must have had sharp eyesight. What a wonderful story.

     
     

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