The Turnbo Manuscripts

by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925


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A COLONY OF WILD HONEYBEES PUT A MOVE ON HIM
By S. C. Turnbo

An amusing story was told me at Choska, Indian Territory, one day by Mr. Wood Sams, a former resident of Arkansas. He said that one day he and Alf Lee located a colony of bees in the mountains south of Buffalo River in Newton County, Arkansas.


"The bees were in a large tree which taken us some time to fell it. When it fell Lee snatched up a handfull of rags which we had brought with us and ran to stuff the rags into the opening where the bees passed in and out of the tree. But when he reached that part of the fallen tree he found that it had bursted open when it struck the ground and the bees were swarming out of the hollow where they had their home and the honey was pouring out on the ground. When Mr. Lee got up in reach of the furious bees they attacked him at once and he turned and fled and fought bees as he ran. Lee was the owner of a long mustach and some of the busy bees got tangled in his mustach and he presented a funny appearance while he was putting in good time running and striking at the bees and spitting and puffing. But the most interesting part of the game of his hasty retreat was while he was going by me as fast as he could go and called out to me in these words. "Go, Mr. Same, run to the tree, Mr. Sams, and stop the hole and the honey did run out and flowed nearly 20 feet down the steep hillside.


When Lee had got rid of the bees he stopped and waited till his excitement had somewhat cooled down and come back and we finally got the bees quiet by igniting rags and lulling them with smoke, and we saved three one-gallon buckets full of rich honey in spite of the big quantity that had wasted."

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