Friday, June 01, 2007

BZZZZZZZZZZZZ!


Natchez, MS> At the famous Christmas Place we have a field called the Beehive Field or Stand. It seems like we always have one of these. We had one at Natchez at our old camp. We had cleared 3 or 4 fields with a dozer in the middle of a cutover area and discovered a beehive about 7 feet up on the side of a tree. We left it alone, that is, until we started plowing.
We had bought this Massey-Ferguson tractor and Dad was plowing up a storm. He kept one eye on the beehive as he went back and forth, getting closer and closer to the tree. No response. He cut right up against the tree and went to the end of the field safely and turned around. He came down to make his last pass. As you can see from the photo, he had forgotten about the exhaust pipe. Close to the tree, the smoking pipe shot out the hot diesel exhaust perfectly into the hole that the bees were in. All hell broke loose! More bees were in that hole than you can imagine. Everyone ran but the bees managed to sting everyone at least once. I ran past the tractor and there was Dad with his hat off, gunning the motor wide open and swatting bees with his hat.
Ohhhh, swat, Uhhhh, Arhhhhh, Aggghhhh, swat, Ohhhh, swat Arhhhh! I left him to the bees.
Finally, he escaped and we all found some shade and licked our wounds in the 100 degree heat. At the famous Christmas Place, when we found another beehive, we left a wide spot near the tree that we did not try to plow.

3 comments:

Dazd said...

Yellow Jackets got me 5 times last year before I even knew what was happening.

The hive died a fiery death that night...

Anonymous said...

To bee stung or NOT to bee stung...that sir, is the question??
Try this trick next time those yellow devils fly up your fazoot...

Throw your cap on the ground whilst you are running the 440 yard dash...the stinging sons of bees will cover that cap up while you hit your afterburner stride and make your escape.

FHB said...

Great story. Poor daddy. Was stung once on the top ov my head on a hiking trip. Hurt like hell.