gathering, a bee contributes only a small
fraction of an ounce of honey to the hive.
The Advance of the Bee in North
America
We’re lucky to have a near-contemporary
description of the honey bee’s movement
across North America. In 1832,
Washington Irving toured what is now the
Oklahoma region and published his
observations in A Tour on the Prairies. The
ninth chapter describes a “Bee-hunt,” the
practice of finding honey in the wild by
following bees back to their hive.It is surprising in what countless swarms
the bees have overspread the Far West
within but a moderate number of years.
The Indians consider them the harbinger of
the white man, as the buffalo is of the red
man; and say that, in proportion as the bee
advances, the Indian and buffalo retire. We