Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1896 — Bees Resent the Shotgun Method. [ARTICLE]

Bees Resent the Shotgun Method.

John Reybeck and H. C. Moore, of Rush township, Penn., engaged in an exciting battle with bees, and were ignominiously defeated, in addition to being terribly stung. Their faces and hands are swollen out of resemblance. Hundreds of bees were slain during the fight. While Moore and Reybeck were talking several swarms of bees began hiving on trees and a rail fence. Moore, the proprietor, fearing that the queen bee was preparing to fly across the fields to a clump of trees a mile distant, requested Reybeck to aid him in collecting the bees. Moore ran to the house, and procuring a bass drum began to beat it in order that the sound would drown the peculiar signal of the queen bee. The method was ineffective. Then he got a shotgun and fired into the closely packed insects. The bees darted at the farmers and stung them so badly that their sufferings were intense. They were in danger of becoming blind, and, to avert this, staggered into a cornfield with thousands of bees on their persons and thousands more buzzing about their heads. Moore’s lips were almost swollen shut, but he-managed to tell Reybeck to dig holes in the ground for protection for their hands and faces. Their finger nails were worn off and flesh lacerated by their efforts. Finally the holes were made, and, being partly composed of clay, afforded great relief. For two hours the men lay almost smothered, when the bees flew away.—Philadelphia Ledger.