Securing Wild Honey a Century Ago

Editor's note: The following articles are from publications listed below. Thank you to Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson for finding, cataloging and transcribing these articles. The language, spelling and grammar of the article reflects the time period when it was written.

https://historyofbees.weebly.com/europe.html

Rockland County Journal (Nyack, N. Y.), October 23, 1875
The "white man's fly," as the Indians call the wild honey bee, lives between civilization and solitude, and the average white man likes to track the "fly" to its home and to scoop out from a hollow tree the stores of honey that accumulated for years.  There are men in Morris county, N. J., says the Sun, like John Odell, who, owning a patch of ground for themselves, keep their bees on the mountain tops and in the swamp lands for miles around, and they are safe.  No one but a professional bee hunter could ever find the hives, and it is an unwritten law among them that they shall respect each other's prior rights.  A big blazed spot on the side of the tree that holds the bees, and the initials or mark of the discoverer, are sufficient to protect his rights of property, and he can lose his bees only by their swarming and choosing another home.  Then, unless he is present to follow them with his own eye from their old home to their new, his claim upon them is gone, and they will belong to him who first finds them.
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The professional bee hunter begins his work early in the spring.  He stands close by some flowering shrub, or by some patch of spring flowers, from which he follows a single bee sometimes for miles, blazing his way as he goes, until he sees it enter a hollow tree or a cleft in the rocks.  If the hive proves to be new property, the finder establishes his claim with his hatchet, and takes careful bearings of the spot, jotting them down with reference to local streams and rocks and natural landmarks unintelligible to strangers, and as bewildering as Capt. Kidd's log books have been to modern gold seekers.  He calculates his longitude, perhaps, from some woodchuck's hole known only to himself, and his latitude from some tall tree conspicuous by its blighted top, or from a pool that has a historical interest to him by reason of a big trout which he caught there; for the bee hunter is usually a fisherman and sportsman, too.  Later in the season the best starting ground is from the few buckwheat fields that are cultivated on the sunniest spots of the hillsides; but no honey is taken from the hives until late in the fall, after the gathering season is over.  Then, if the storing-place is accessible, the bulk of the sweet treasure is taken out, only enough being left to maintain the busy workers through a semi-torpid winter.

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Rockland County Journal (Nyack, N. Y.), October 5, 1878
Two men from West Nyack recently found a bee tree near Rockland Lake, and took therefrom seventy five pounds of honey.  Two other men living in this vicinity some time ago found a tree with sixty pounds of honey.

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Kingston Daily Freeman, October 18, 1912
Raymond Evory of Hasbrouck avenue is a successful bee hunter and last week he located five bee trees along the line of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad near Stony Hollow.  The first day he went hunting bee trees however he got "stung " as he failed to locate a tree but the next day he was more successful and located all five trees and brought home a fine haul of honey which will keep him in honey this winter.

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Putnam County Courier (Carmel, N. Y.), December 2, 1921 
Henry Ludington, Augustus Birch and Scott Eastwood took advantage of the warm, balmy air of November 22 and went bee hunting, finding many on late flowers and trailed them easily to their fine store of honey, quite an unusual experience for that date.

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