An Account of a Method Lately Found out in New-England, for Discovering Where the Bees Hive in the Woods, in Order to Get Their Honey. By the Same Mr. Dudley

At B the Hunter stands and having with his Sugar &c. procured one or more Bees, observes the Course of the first Bee & finds it to be due West. N. B. If the Hunter is not satisfied of the Courses of (either first or second) by the flight of one Bee, he lets more fly until he is very certain. much resembles the Sumach or Rhus; the Fruit is a white roundish dry Berry, growing in Clusters, so like that of Toxicodendron triphyllon folio sinuato, pubescente, Inst. R. Herb. 611. Hederæ trifoliæ Canadensis affinis planta: Arbor venenata quorundam H. R. Paris. as scarce to be distinguish'd from it. VII. An Account of a Method lately found out in New-England, for Discovering where the Bees Hive in the Woods, in order to get their Honey. By the same Mr. Dudley. The Hunter in a clear Sun-shiny day, takes a Plate or Trencher, with a little Sugar, Honey or Molasses spread on it, and when got into the Woods, sets it down on a Rock or Stump in the Woods: this the Bees soon scent and find out; for 'tis generally supposed a Bee will scent Honey or Wax above a Mile's distance. The Hunter secures in a Box or other Conveniency, one or more of the Bees as they fill themselves, and after a little time, lets one of them go, observing very carefully the Course the Bee steers; for after he rises in the Air, he flies directly, or upon a straight Course to the Tree where the Hive is. In order to this, the Hunter carries with him his Pocket Compass, his Rule, and other Implements, with a Sheet of Paper, and sets down the Course, suppose it be West; by this he is sure the Tree must be somewhere in a West Line from where he is, but wants to know the exact Distance from his Station, tion; in order to determine that, he makes an offset either South or North (we'll suppose North) an hundred Perch or Rod, (if it be more, it will still be more exact, because the Angle will not be so acute) then he takes out another Bee and lets him go, observing his Course also very carefully, for he being loaded will, as the first, (after he is mounted a convenient height) fly directly to the Hive; this second Course, (as I must call it) the Hunter finds to be South, 54 Degrees West; then there remains nothing but to find out where the two Courses intersect, or, which is the same thing, the Distance from B to A, or from C to A, as in the Figure, Tab. 3d. for there the Honey-Tree is. For which Reason, if the Course of the second Bee from C had been South-west, and by South, viz. to D, then the Hive-Tree must have been there, for there the Lines are found to intersect. The Foundation of all this is the freight or direct motion of Bees, when bound home with their Honey, and this is found to be certain by the Observation and Experience of our Hunters every Year, and especially of late Years, since this Mathematical way of finding Honey in the Woods has been used with such Success. An ingenious Man of my Acquaintance the last Year took two or three of his Neighbours that knew nothing of the matter, and after he had taken his Bees, set the Courses the first and second Bee steered, made the offset, and taken the Distance from the two Stations to the Interfection, he gave orders to cut down such a Tree, pointing to it; the Labourers smiled, and were confident there was no Honey there, for they could not perceive the Tree to be hollow, or to have have any hole for the Bees to enter by, and would have dissuaded the Gentleman from felling the Tree, but he insisted on it, and offered to lay them any Wager that the Hive was there, and so it proved to the great surprize of the Country-men. I cannot dismiss this Subject, without acquainting you, that all the Bees we have in our Gardens, or in our Woods, and which now are in great numbers, are the produce of such as were brought in Hives from England near a hundred Years ago, and not the natural produce of this part of America; for the first Planters of New England never observed a Bee in the Woods, until many Years after the Country was settled; but that which proves it beyond question is, that the Aborigines (the Indians) have no word in their Language for a Bee, as they have for all Animals whatsoever proper to, or aboriginally of the Country, and therefore for many Years called a Bee by the name of English Man's Fly. Our People formerly used to find out Honey in the Woods, by surprizing and following one Bee after another by the Eye, till at length they found out where the Bees hived. I will mention another thing with respect to Bees, tho' I don't know but it may have been commonly observed; and that is, when they Swarm they never go to the Northward, but move Southward, or inclining that way. I should have taken notice in the proper place, that when one Bee goes home from the Sugar-plate, he returns with a considerable number from the Hive.