Tanglewood Hollow

Bee-lining has been much discussed on a couple of my bee groups lately. I think it is amazing.

Back before the days of mail order bees (which I’d argue against buying by the way) people had to know a beekeeper to get into the hobby. Or they could go bee-lining, and try to get a feral hive.

Basically, you try to find a place where it would be likely to see honeybees. Some methods involve using a box to catch the bees. They all seem to have one thing in common though, you are trying to supply a high sugar food source for the bees that excites them enough to go back to the hive and tell every other bee about it.

After a honeybee finds our bowl of honey (or sugar water, et al), there will eventually be a conveyor belt of bees stopping by for the free sugar.

Some techniques call for covering one of the bees in flour. That way you can time their flights by seeing how often they return (it will only be long enough for them to deposit their load at the hive and return). Others call for you to take multiple readings on the same hive so that you can triangulate its position.

My favorite has always been the native American version. It involves tying a fibrous string (horse tail hair after Anglos) to the captured bee. The string slows the bee so that you can follow it at a jog.

Here’s the bee box version:

The process by which hives were found is very intriguing and sometimes requires one piece of equipment that was difficult to obtain; the bee box. Years ago, I found a book that described the process of lining bees in great detail and gave a great description of the bee box. So I built one. What follows is a description of the bee box and its use.

via 2wicky: Bee Lining.

I’ll report back after I have had the time to try it.

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