How to find wild bees in the forest - 1600s beekeeping tricks
From Bitidningen (the Swedish national beekeepers association paper), May 1912 - An article by C. S. Rydberg, who transcribes a Swedish beekeeping manual from the 1600s with an interesting method for locating a wild honey bee nest. The english translation is by me, so don't blame old Rydberg.
A method by which you may obtain bees Bees are obtained by means of finding, buying or splitting. Underhanded ways to steal, rob, or by some other false practice obtain strangers bees bring only bad luck, as experience has shown. If one should happen to find forest bees, however, a neat method by which to bring the tree with the nest home must be undertaken, by carefully cutting the trunk and bringing it home.
And if you do not know how to find wild bees in the forest this is a way by which one might do so; Early in the morning hours seek bees who are foraging in some blooming meadow, or by a well, or the other places bees usually congregate.
Fashion yourself a bee pipe out of the branch of an elderberry tree, or drill one out of some other wood, and block both ends with wax. Fashion a hole along the middle section of the pipe and coat the insides with honey and crushed lemon balm ^[Melissa ^Officinalis] and fennel.
Now lay that pipe where the bees work in all their diligence, and they shall soon be drawn into it by the pleasant odour. Block the hole with your thumb and proceed to walk in the direction they seemed to be flying from. After a few moments you let your thumb move to release a bee, and give chase, and continue to do so one bee at a time, until you have found their home. If the search is unsuccessful with one pipe of bees, you may fashion a fresh one, and continue from the spot where the first one ran out.
Once you have found a trunk with a bee nest in the woods, chop a hole underneath, and smoke all the bees out of it, but clang slowly a pan so they gather nearby, at which they can be caught and brought home. Since these bees are not used to people, care should be taken to often feed them some honey, and each evening closely look into the bee-trunk, so that they begin to get used to people and start turning into tame bees.
^^end ^^of ^^article
C.S. Rydberg ends by noting that today, that is in 1912, finding a nest of wild bees is getting very difficult due to modern forestry practices in Sweden, but that it is still possible to do so in some parts of America.
He also notes that: >On taming the wild bees by letting them see one’s face, I fear that doing so must be done without a veil at which point the beekeeper may soon be unrecognizable anyway.
I found this method interesting and wanted to translate it, to see if anyone recognizes it. The banging on a metal object is probably known to many here, and maybe you even know someone who still does it?
Perhaps a bee pipe could be of some slim use in locating where on a property a nest may be, in a chimney or roof, etc. Other than that it is just a charming historical account of a time when the forests were better off.