The Beekeepers

Our neighbor, Willie, had a beehive in his backyard, which he was very proud of. Sometimes his bees would wander off for awhile and find a place they liked better. He seemed a little sad when the bees would disappear and often said, "I sure hope they come back."

Joe Cool, also, had an interest in bees and was trying to maintain a hive of his own. One day he happened to notice a swarm of bees hovering around our little mother-in-law house in the backyard. There was an opening where an old stove pipe had once been located and they were flying in and out of the hole. The bees had made their home inside the wall. He approached Mr. Man, my husband, and told him that he knew how to take control of this situation and brought his small ladder over to the little house. As he climbed the ladder, he said, "You take this mirror, see, and hold it above the hole and you will see the hive." Sure enough, Mr. Man looked at the reflection and saw a lot of buzzing going on inside. Curiosity got the best of Willie and he came over to take it all in. After all, this could be his hive.

Joe Cool had a home-made contraption that he had come up with called a "smoker." He had put a piece of green turf inside a can and then lit it which produced a stream of smoke. Mr. Man and Willie, knowing better, stood way back as they observed the process and watched the "master at work." The bees seemed to get a little agitated and Joe Cool began to flinch and jump, as he got zapped a few times. He said, "Well, this ain't workin." He came down the ladder and said he had something else he wanted to try, but that would be for another day.

One evening, Joe Cool decided to give it another go and returned to the beehive with an old canister-type vacuum cleaner. His plan was to suck the bees out of the hole. Once again he climbed the ladder as Mr. Man stood by being somewhat amused at this latest maneuver. Joe Cool's body began to jerk and he stiffened up a bit. He had agitated those bees once more and they were ticked off to say the least. After he got zapped a few times, he came back down the ladder and said he couldn't get the hose in far enough. He told Mr. Man, "I ain't goin’ up there no more. I'm done with it." Mr. Man decided the best thing to do was to close off the hole. Joe Cool’s ladder remained outside the little house for some time. I guess the whole thing had left a bad taste in his mouth. Mr. Man finally picked up the ladder and lifted it back over to his side of the fence. After that, the beehives seemed to disappear from the places they had once called home. I guess those little critters were trying to tell everybody to "buzz off!"