As a boy I grew up

having learned how to work with bees. 

 

We never used the special protection

that you see today against stings. 

All we ever used was cigars, water and patience. 

 

We would go out into the wilds

and take wild swarms from the trees

bring them home in our car

in a cardboard box and move them

into wood box hives for our use. 

 

 

At the right time,

we would open these box hives

and remove the golden combs of honey

with as little disturbance as possible. 

 

All of this was done

ithout protection of any kind. 

No gloves, no long sleeve shirts. 

Only cigars.

 

The cutting of the honey comb

was done by using a long butcher knife

that cut along the wall of the box hive. 

 

Almost always

some of the honey cells in the comb 

were accidentally cut

and the sweet golden honey

would bleed from the comb

and would run down into the hive. 

 

Sometimes bees

would be in the path

of this running lost honey

and they would be covered

and swept away by the flow

of their own golden product. 

 

This was the honey that drowned the bee. 

 

 

 

 

Drowning bees in honey is not done

in the modern way that we take honey

from the hives today. 

 

But in the old days

when when hives were hand made

it was a double loss

when you had honey that drown the bee...

 

 

 

 

The history and past stories

of the honey bee

is as unique as the insect itself.  

 

 

The honey bee has been used by man

as far back as we can find written history. 

 

 

It is probable that it was

one of the first liquid products of man. 

 

 

And it is very probable that the need

to transport the honey even in the comb

help lead to the development

of "water tight" containers. 

 

 

The first beer was said

to have been made of honey...

a product named "mead". 

 

 

 

Not only has the honey bee been used

to produce honey for consumption.

 

But in early times the honey bee

has often been used as a weapon of significance

not only in the role of protection and defense

 

but also in the role of aggression and attack.

 

 

 

In Exodus 23:28 of the Bible

bees are mentioned as a threat. 

 

 

 

The Heptakometers of Asia Minor

knowing that advancing armies

shared their looted booty

kept bees that were allowed

to make poison honey from

alkaloid plant blooms.  

 

A store of this poison honey

was left in the path

of Pompey the Great's advancing army knowing that the poison honey would be

consumed soon after it had been siezed. 

 

The timing was good

and the resulting attack that followed temporary turned Pompey's great

but deathly ill army back.

 

 

 

Roman legions used bees

in a more direct way. 

 

Sealed hives were catapulted

into enemy's ranks and positions. 

When the hives landed, they exploded

by the impact

sending angry bees to swarm the area and drive the enemy into rout. 

 

Armor was of little use

since the maddened bees

would find exposed places

and would even manage their way

into protective head gear.

 

 

 

At sea, sealed bee hives

were hurled at enemy ships

with similar effect,

driving sword yielding enemy

over the side or below decks...

 

allowing the assaulted ship

to be taken easier if timed correctly.

 

 

 

 

In the Medieval age

castles were built with

special designed hollow walls

and bees were encouraged

to occupy these edifices. 

 

When walls were attacked or scaled

the attacking enemy would be met with swarms of attacking bees. 

 

Hives were also kept

on the top of these walls

and were often tumbled

upon the attackers below

who were shielded against

stones and arrows from above. 

 

Bees had the advantage of

flying around such protective roofs

and even entering the head armor

of a fully armored and mounted knight. 

 

 

 

 

Though bees did not usually kill

the psychological gains

in the moment of pitch battle

had a most valuable effect.

 

 

 

 

 

In the 17th Century

a merchant ship sailed from Barcelona, Spain. 

 

It was discovered that a swarm

of wild bees had lit and had established themselves near the ship's spar on the bow

just under the upper deck. 

 

It was a good omen

to have something wild and natural

to choose their ship as a place to live. 

 

So the crew was happy with the swarm.

 

The cool Ocean air kept the bees quiet

and the crossing seemed indeed swift

and trouble free.

 

Soon the ship came within the warmer waters of the Caribbean heading for Cuba. 

 

The bees were active

and seemed to send out scouts

in an attempt to find blooms and pollen

needed to make honey. 

 

But before they could reach Cuba

the merchant vessel was set upon

by a pirate vessel.

 

The pirates fired upon the Merchant Vessel

striking it several times...

once in the bow near the bees...

 

The Merchant vessel found

that its powder was damp and

would not fire correctly. 

 

The pirate vessel hauled along side for the kill

and attempted to board the Merchant near the bow.

 

But the vibration

of the cannon round

striking nearby had already upset the bees

and when the pirates began to climb

to the upper deck...

the bees swarmed out, driving them back down into the sea and back to their ship. 

 

The Merchant ship was saved

by rapidly swinging around

and giving full sail downwind...

 

 

 

As the crew of the Merchant vessel

enjoyed a merry liberty in Santiago, Cuba

the bees gathered pollen from the rich tropical flowers in the area... 

 

Convinced now of the luck of the bees

some of the crew worried, seeing that some

of the heavily laden bees were falling

into the water from the lack of a good place

to land with their load... 

 

A ships rigger managed a small square

of canvass just below the swarm

and the ship continued

carrying its mascot of

thousands of bees...

 

 

 

 

 

During the battle of Antietam

during the American Civil War

attacking Northern troops were routed

when Confederate cannon fire accidently struck near by shattering hives of bees.

 

 

 

 

Even in Vietnam

the VC would use nest of hornets and wasp

hurled into military outpost at the moment

of their attack. 

 

They also used

elaborate booby traps

of hornets near known trails

 

and would wait in ambush

for American troops to trigger a swarm...

 

 

 

 

A Swiss bee keeper

once smuggled a load of fine Italian honey

into Switzerland without paying any duty on it... 

 

He did this by hiding

and exposing the fine honey

close to the border, outside of Switzerland. 

 

He then crossed the border

to his home about a mile away...

 

and soon his bees

were finding the hidden honey

and flying home with it... 

 

In the end, he managed to have

all 200 pounds of the fine Italian honey at a handsome savings....

 

 

 

 

Today, the honey bee

is being part of an experiment 

and is being used in the battle field...

 

only this time

used in a way that encourages peace

and productivity.

 

All over the world

where armies have clashed

there lies large tracts of land unproductive

because they are littered with

thousands of active mines

hidden just beneath

the soil. 

 

The toll of dead and maimed

including children, rises as peaceful farmers

and villagers attempt to reclaim these lands

for productive farm use.

 

Now, there has been designed

tiny radio transmitters that can be fastened

to the body of the busy bee... 

 

and in his pursuit to find

the sweet smells of the bloom

he finds instead, the sweet glyceride

of explosives in the TNT of the mine. 

 

In this effort

it might well happen

that the honey that once drowned the bee

can be claimed in its loss... 

 

in the loss of humanity...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The End