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Bees

Dad kept honey bees. He didn't have a lot, - probably half a dozen hives or so. They often caused us much trouble as they would fly around near the house where we played and worked. We were told that if we would run inside a building when they flew around our face, they would leave us. One day my youngest sister was carrying an armload of wood into the house, when a bee kept buzzing around her head. She was frightened, and ran around the house yelling in German for someone to help her, as the bee was going to sting her. All the while, she hung onto her armload of wood. We finally convinced her to drop the wood and run into the woodshed. When she did this, the bee didn't bother her anymore.

Sometimes when we were home alone, the bees swarmed. They did this when a hive had two queens. One queen would take off with a bunch of workers and they'd fly away and settle somewhere in a clump, often on the branch of a tree. Then Dad would have to go after them with an empty hive and catch them. He would shake the clump into the hive and he was lucky, they'd stay. Then a new swarm or hive was formed.

When this swarming took place, we could hear the loud buzzing of the hundreds of bees, as they were getting ready to take off. We would then hurriedly grab water pails, dish pans, kettles, and whatever we could find, and run after them. We'd bang on the kettles and throw water on them, hoping they would find a place to light, thinking that it was raining and thundering. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it did not. Often they would keep right on flying, higher and higher until we'd lose sight of them. We felt really bad when this happened. In spite of our efforts, we had lost a swarm of bees which was said to be worth about $6.00. I don't know if we were told to do this, or if we thought it up by ourselves, but we were always happy when we could tell Dad where the swarm had settled, so he could go and bring them home.

Dad passed away in 1936, leaving our mother to care for the bees. The honey she extracted was often used to pay threshing bills, etc., because not having brothers, we were not able to return the help, and we didn't have money to pay.

In the fall, the hives had to be moved for the winter into a special room in the basement that Dad had made. It had to be totally dark and cool so the bees would not become active. One fall, Mother had the bees all lined up on a bench by the outside cellar door, when the bench tipped over. There were bees all over the place. By the time she had picked up the hives and straightened them again, she had been stung so many times that her arms swelled up. She had to get to the doctor immediately, as she became very ill from all the poison in her body. We were very fortunate that the medication the doctor gave her counteracted the poison and she soon felt better.

The bees were a great help for us, but were also a constant source of trouble. When we had our auction, Mother gave the bees to an uncle. He knew how to care for them, and we were glad to be rid of them. Many times we miss the honey we used to have, but there also was a lot of work connected with it. We still buy honey in big amounts, probably because we got used to having a lot on hand.