by Tim MacWelch
Keep it sheltered—the hive needs to stay out of the wind in cold weather. Deep cold can kill the bees, and even an unseasonable chill can reduce the worker bees’ efficiency.
The super should be in a sunny location in order to take advantage of solar heat. The hive’s interior temperature is usually around 93°F (34°C), which is regulated by the bee’s body heat and activity.
221 FEED YOUR BEES WELL
Many different trees and plants can provide the food sources that bees require. Worker bees will travel up to 1.8 miles (3 km) from the hive to forage for their favorite nectar and pollen, but a closer supply of food generally makes for a more efficient use of their time and energy.
Set up your super near an area that has abundant flowers, orchards, and crops that the bees enjoy. Fields of clover and alfalfa are a great food resource in agricultural areas. Orchards of apples, oranges, and other fruits can provide another bee hot spot. Your bees will also enjoy wildflowers such as asters, goldenrod, dandelion, and sage.
Avoid areas with large concentrations of toxic flowers. Don’t keep your super near large stands of mountain laurel or rhododendron, as the honey your bees produce may take on toxins from the poisonous flowering shrubs.
Once you get the hang of it, just one super of bees can yield a huge amount of honey, with the average established hive creating 30–60 pounds (14–27 kg) of honey in a calendar year. The late Ormond Aebi, an American beekeeper, still holds his 1974 world record for honey obtained from a single hive: 404 pounds (183 kg) in one year.
Learn to live wild and give something back.
Throughout this book, you have seen strategy after strategy for collecting wild foods. Plants, mushrooms, fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, shellfish, and insects are at once survival foods and culinary frontiers. Sure, some of these foods may not be palatable to you—everyone’s tastes are different—but these foods all share one common trait: calories.
In essence, you are trying to preserve the calories you currently hold in your body and provide additional calories to cover the workload of your daily tasks. Since we live in an unprecedented age of plenty due to agricultural advancements, global shipping, and indefinite food storage, it’s easy to eat too many calories in our modern lives—giving calories a bad rap. But if you’re in an emergency scenario without much of a food supply, calories will soon be the most important thing you can get your hands on.
I want this book to put you on the path of our forebears—to learn the value of the calorie-rich wilderness and to exercise mastery of your wild-food resources. And in that mastery, I hope you’ll exercise restraint. Once you begin to see food all around you, the open-eyed will observe how vulnerable many plants and animals have become. Be conservative in your approach to wild-food collection. Leave some plants and animals for your next trip and for those who will follow you.
I want you to become a hunter, trapper, angler, and forager, but I want your great-grandchildren to have the same opportunity. Be careful out there.
And enjoy your wild food!
—Tim MacWelch
INDEX
A
acorns (oak nuts), 119, 136
gathering (good and bad), 137
making flour, 138
active snares, 081
aging compost, 188
alcohol
poisons, 134
tincture recipes, 208
allergies, 131
allium, de-scenting with, 077
amaranth, 123
anesthetics, yarrow, 182
animal attacks, avoiding, 012
antibacterial, yarrow, 182
antihistamines, 131
appliance-box smokers, 030
AR-15 platform rifles, 039
archery, 041
arrowhead, 126
arrows, 041, 046. See also bows
artichoke, Jerusalem, 126
attacks
badgers, 085
defensive adaptations of plants, 130
Hugh Glass case study, 139
autumn olives, 124
B
badgers, 085
bait casting reels, 001
baits, 002. See also fishing; trapping
snares, 083, 084
traps, 054
baking in Dutch ovens, 163
balms, 206
bark
building fire with, 157
eating pine, 031
beans, 171
bears, 032
black bear tracks, 052
Hugh Glass bear attack, 139
beavers
tracks, 052
trapping, 075
beech nuts, 119
beekeeping gear, 219
beer, brewing yarrow, 182
bees, 218–221
benefits of live-catch traps, 070
berries, 121
fruits. See fruits
poison, 132
binoculars, 051
bipolar percussion, 166
birch trees, 122
building fire with bark, 157
bites, avoiding, 012
bittercress, 120
black bear tracks, 052
blackberries, 121
blankets, 144
blueberries, 121
boat reels, 001
boats, 015. See also fishing
bobcat tracks, 052
body-grip traps, 055, 064
ropes, 066
setting, 065
boiling
in Dutch ovens, 163
tree sugars, 215
water, 148–149
bolt-action rifles, 039
botany basics, 108
bows, 041. See also archery
adding sights, 042
carving, 045
dry fires, 043
protection, 042
branches, collecting for arrows, 046
branch patterns, 110
brewing
compost teas, 186
compresses, 212
maple wine, 217
teas, 203
yarrow beer, 182
brining
fish, 027
vegetables, 197
buckeye nuts (poison), 132
building
deadfalls, 078–080
fires, 150–157
fish sheds, 029
fish smokers, 030
live-catch traps, 069
steam pits, 162
stone ovens, 160, 161
teepees (setting up fires), 154
water stills, 148
burdock, 125, 143
butchering small game, 096–99
butterfly loop (knot), 168
butter, yarrow, 182
C
cabbage, krauts, 198
candling eggs, 088
canned foods, 172
canned meats/fish, stocking up, 177
canning meat, 181
carcasses, skinning, 098
carnivores, trapping bait, 060
carrots, wild, 126, 143
carving
bows, 045
fish sticks, 006
casting reels, 001
catfish. See also fishing
building a box, 013
hand fishing, 011
catnip, 143
cattails, 127
cell phones, charging, 101
chameleon plants, identifying, 129
chanterelle mushrooms, 118
cheeseweed (mallow), 124
cherries, 124
chestnuts, 119
chickweed, 120
chicory, 126, 143
chipmunk scat, 53
chips for smoking, 025
chlorine bleach, 146
chocolate, stocking up, 177
choice cuts, butchering, 099
cicadas, eating, 093
cities, gathering plants in, 140–142
clams, 016
cleaning
fish, 020
rifles, 036
cleavers, 120
clover, 120
coffee, 171
chicory, 126
dandelions, 113
coils, water stills, 148
cold, preparing pantry for, 173
cold smoking, 024
colonies, bees, 220. See also bees
common morel mushrooms, 118
common plant names, 109
compost
aging, 188
teas, 186
compound bows, 041
compresses, 212
constrictor knots, 168
cooking, 158–163
brining fish, 027
building fire. See fire
cattails, 127
cicadas, 093
dandelions, 113
Dutch ovens, 163
eggs, 087
fish scales, 022
griddles, 159
planning menus, 174–177
rendering fats, 179
smoking, 024
snails, 091
steam pits, 162
stone ovens, 160, 161
utensils, 158
cotton balls, building fires, 157
covering scents, 058
coyote
scat, 53
tracks, 052
crabs, 017. See also fishing
cranberries, 124
crickets, eating, 092
crustacean traps, 008
curly dock (seeds), 123
D
dandelions, 113, 143
deadfalls
building, 078–080
Paiute, 080
death angel mushrooms, 115
deathcap mushrooms, 115
deer, 032
nutrition of, 100
scat, 053
tracks, 052
defensive adaptations of plants, 130
de-scent with allium, 077
diaphoretic, yarrow, 182
digging clams, 016
dinner menus, 174
dirt-hole bank set, foothold traps, 063
disinfecting water, 144, 146–149
double fisherman’s knot, 168
dressing small game, 094
dried fruit, 171
drone bees, 218
drowning, 012, 082
dry firing bows, 043
drying fish, 028
drying foods, 196
Dutch ovens, cooking in, 163
E
eating insects, 090
Echinacea, 200
edible roots, 126
effects of tinctures, 210
eggs, 086–089
electric-range smokers, 030
elk, 032, 100
extractors, honey, 219
F
false morel mushrooms, 115
fasteners, knots, 168
fats
rendering, 179
types of cooking, 171
fatwood, 031, 157
feeding bees, 221
feral hogs, 032
filleting fish, 023. See also fishing
filters, water, 147
fire
building, 150–157
cheats, 157
cooking. See cooking
location of, 155
and signaling, 104
starters, 144
teepees, 154
firewood, 150–153
first aid
kits, 102
poison, 132
survival kits, 144
types of poisons, 134
fir trees, 122
fisherman’s knot, double, 168
fishing, 001–030
adding weirs to traps, 009
brining fish, 027
building a box, 013
building fish sheds, 029
carving fish sticks, 006
catching by hand, 011
clams, 016
crabs, 017
drying fish, 028
filleting fish, 023
gorge hooks, 007
gutting fish, 021
hazards, 012
hooks, 002
like a raccoon, 019
line, 003
lobster, 018
lures, 004
rod and reels, 001
scaling fish, 020
smoking fish, 024
soda bottle traps, 010
survival case study, 015
survival kits, 005, 144
tickling, 011
traps, 008
fixed-loop snares, 082
fixed snares, 081
flames, lighting fires, 155
flat set, foothold traps, 063
flavor
of individual quarries, 032
small game animals, 049
fletching arrows, 046
flies (fishing lures), 004
flours, making with acorns, 138
fly agaric mushrooms, 115
fly reels, 001
food
availability through seasons, 169
drying, 196
fishing case study, 015
making jerky, 178
planning menus, 174–177
preparation of, 174–181
surviving without, 104
foothold traps, 055, 061
negative stereotypes, 062
setting, 063
foraging, 107. See also gathering
fox scat, 053
freezing meat, 180
fruits, 124, 132
fungus. See mushrooms
G
game, nutrition of, 100
gardening, 183–195
aging compost, 188
brining vegetables, 197
compost teas, 186
drying foods, 196
herbs, 190
high-calorie plants, 192
planning, 184
planting seeds, 189
roots, 185
saving seeds, 194
storing seeds, 195
tools, 191
water, 187
weeds, 193
garlic, covering scents with, 058
gathering
acorns (oak nuts), 137
botany basics, 108
Boy Scout motto, 101
harvesting tips, 106
maps, 102
personal safety, 128
plants, 108. See also plants
plants in cities, 140–142
poison berries, 132
prioritizing survival to-do lists, 104
survival kits, 102
tree nuts, 119
weeds, 105
wild greens, 120
gear, beekeeping, 219
geese
nutrition of, 100
scat, 53
generic plant names, 109
ginger, wild, 126
ginseng, 126, 204
Glass, Hugh, 139
global varieties of plants, 143
glue, pine sap, 031
glycosides (poison), 134
gorge hooks, 007
grabbling, 011
grains, 123
grapes, wild, 124
graveling, 011
Graves’ bait stick snare, 083
greens (wild), harvesting, 120
griddles, 159
grinding flours with acorns, 138
ground cherries, 124
groundhogs
flavor, 049
scat, 53
growing food, 183. See also gardening
gurgling, 011
gutting fish, 021. See also fishing
H
hand, catching fish by, 011, 014
hanging
fish for smoking, 025
game, 097
harvesting
tips, 106
wild greens, 120
hawthorn (fruit), 124
hazards, fishing, 012
hazelnuts, 119
heaving line knot, 168
hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, 118
herbaceous plants, 108. See also plants
herbivores, trapping bait, 060
; herbs, 190, 205
hickory nuts, 119
hiding human scents, 057
high-calorie plants, 192
hogging, 011
honey, 171, 218–221
hooks, 002, 007
horse chestnut (poison), 132
horse nettle fruit (poison), 132
hot smoking, 024
hunter’s bend knot, 168
hunting
dressing small game, 094
eggs, 086
fishing, 001–030
insects, 090
nutrition of game, 100
pine trees, 031
quarries, 032
rifles, 035. See also rifles
scouting grounds, 034
seasons, 033
small game, 047
trapping, 054–084
I
identifying plants. See also plants
branch patterns, 110
chameleon plants, 129
leaf margins, 111
leaf patterns, 112
mushrooms, 114–118
tree nuts, 119
yarrow, 182
Indian cucumber root, 126
infections, 012. See also medicines
infusing herbal oils, 205
insects
cattails as repellents, 127
eating, 090
installing rifle scopes, 037
invasive species, harvesting, 107
iodine
povidone, 146
tincture of, 146
J
jack-o’-lantern mushrooms, 115
Jerusalem artichoke, 126
jewelweed tea, 202
K
kindling, 153. See also tinder
king bolete mushrooms, 118
knots, tying, 168
L
lady’s thumb, 120
lamb’s quarters, 123
lard salves, 207
Latin plant names, 109
laws, trapping, 056
leaves, 110
dandelions, 113
margins, 111
patterns, 112
leeks, wild (ramps), 126
lettuce, wild, 120
licenses, trapping, 056
lighting fires, 150–157. See also fire
line, fishing, 003
live-catch traps, 055, 068
benefits of, 070
building, 069
dos and don’ts, 071
lobster, 018. See also fishing
local areas, studying, 128
location of fires, 155
longbows, 041
Lykov family case study, 164
M
mallow (cheeseweed), 124
maple trees, 122, 213, 214
maple wine, brewing, 217
maps, 103
marinades, salt and spice, 027
meat
canning, 181
freezing, 180
medical help, 132. See also first aid
medicinal plants
Echinacea, 200
teas, 201
yarrow, 182
medicines, 200–212
balms, 206
compresses, 212
first aid. See first aid
infusing herbal oils, 205
poultice, 209
