The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-15
WlLD-BEE HUNTERS.
How the Busy Insect Is Robbed of It's
HOneyed Treasure.

j. s. Evans, in Chicago Times-Herald.
Bee-hivers and herders, who have been in
session in Chicago, report that honey will
be dear for a year to come; that the bees
were trifing during the spring and summer
when the sun shone. 1t is said that they
just lazily buzzed about, slipped at flower
bud occasionally and then went home and
slept just like an ordinary drunkard The
result was that along about the LIST of
September, when the hives should have
been full of the nectar that makes men eat
half dozen waffies in the morning and the
cook tired Of making biscuit in the even
ing for supper, there was scarcely enough
honey found to feed the bees themselves
during the winter There is lots of comb
reported. but it is dry and fit only to make
wax.
This is the season of the year when the
wild bee hunter is in his glory. He feasts
on honeyed batter cakes and waffies three
or four times a day, and goes to bed hungry
at that. A bee hunter is born, not made
There are men who can find bee trees just
like dog can trace and jump fox. But,
like country fiddler, a bee hunter is fit
for nothing else. He can't shoot, he can't
hoe corn, he can't chop cotton, he can't dig
potatoes drive wagon, grabble COOLERS,
crack hickory nuts, churn milk, call hogs or
build fires, He is good in that one particu-
can smell out tree filled with honey much
easier than bear can do He looks first at
the body, gives it q tap, with a stick or
something of the sort, and in a minute can
tell you if he has struck paying claim.
The bee hunter in the South has busy
season about this time every year. In some
places it is against the law to rob trees ex-
cept during the fall months. 1t is along
about the latter part of August when the
time is ripe for pigrimageS into the forests
in search of honey. Usually the trees are
very large and are hollow. I have seen al
much as 300 pounds taken from one hive. 1t
is sweeter than that obtained from the or
binary apiary Why that is do not know,
and Sam Knight, of Washington county,
Alabama the king hunter, once said to me
that he didn't know, either. But wild honey
is sweeter than tame honey, just like wild
game is better than home-raised meat. The
syrup is clearer and the comb is richer.
Sam Knight has robbed more than a thou
sand bee trees. In his county wild flowers
grow. The honeysuckle blooms until frost.
The jasmine gives fragrance almost the
year round. Sweet are the pea and potato
buds until far into the fall. Wild bees swarm
about. in droves. There are no apiaries in
vested by the busy little bees they go to
tree to deposit their sugar. Sam Knight
watches them during the summer while they
are at work. He bats them just as the tur-
key trapper bats his game. He selects
stump and on top of it he places drop or
so of molasses. Then he takes chew of
home twist and waits. When bee comes
along and lights on the stump he stays
there until he has loaded deep enough to re-
uuire deposit Then he lifts his wings and
makes line for his home that is as straight
as an arrow. Sam Knight takes up. the
trail. He follows until the tree has been
found He makes mark Of some sort on
the bark, blazes the way back to the stump
and then goes to another part of the forest,
where the same thing is done over again. In
the course of a couple of months work
Knight locates hundred or more trees.
RObbng a bee tree isn't much of a job
The trunk is first felled to the ground. The
crash generally kills most of the bees, or
else stuns them so as to prevent their
singing. Then the hollow part is split open
and the buckets are filled. Knight ships
price beyond that of any other kind on the
market. A person entering a grocery store
in Mobile and asks for honey is in turn
questioned as, to whether he wants the
Knight brand or not Much of it is shipped
to Washington, and some of 1t to New
York, where it can be found at belmont
co.'s ChamberlinS, in Washington, makes
a speciality of two dishes-Knight honey
and WaffieS Malone ham and boiled rice
Some years ago General Malone planted
several acres in peanuts, bought a hundred
or so guinea hogs turned them loose in the
peanut patch about the time the nuts had
ripened, and then, when the hogs were fat,
on the Washington market John Cham
berlin finally made a contract with Malone
to buy all such meat at SOC pound, l am
told since Mahone's death his family has
hone ham, steak with rice, knight hon.
ey'' with waffies, is a breakfast that every
rich man who goes to Washington in the
fall and winter seasons orders first gov
eminent clerk couldn't afford such luxuries
more than a couple of times a year.
sam mn KNIGHT told me once. Said he: IF a
singing insect ever lights on you, hold
your breath until you can brush ii away.
If you don't breathe the insect can't sting.
l Wouldn't mind walking into the biggest
yellow Jacket nest in the world. can hold
my breath for a minute, and in that time
I could kill the. most of them and scare