Hello All,

I am astonished that there are so many 
educated people that never knew that 
honey bees would mate with lightning 
bugs.  But I tell you it was common practice among
bees and lightening bugs in the forests of
California where I once lived and worked 
as a prospector. Off in the region near a place 
called Vinegar Pond, where Pickled 
Cucumbers grew on vines and upon which 
we fatted and pickled pork on the hoof,
and where the giant California trees grew,
it was no uncommon thing for the us to 
discover in the hollow of some of these 
gigantic trees immense swarms of bees that 
worked a night force who were provided 
with illuminating wings.  In fact, it was 
necessary for such an economy among bees 
in that region in order to fill the hollows of 
these gigantic trees. It was in this great forest, 
where I witnessed a remarkable conflict 
between California honeybees and yellow jackets. 
 
While prospecting, we happened upon a gigantic 
bee tree, the hollow of which was so large that you 
could easily have placed the Cortland Nominal 
school building within it, were it of a more oval 
shape.  I tell you, it’s the solemn truth, if ever 
I spoke it in my life!  This hollow was filled 
with thousands of tons of the most delicious 
honey you ever tasted.  There was a large stream 
of honey that flowed from a crack in this tree 
to a depression in the ground about an eight of 
a mile distant, forming a lake of pure honey that 
was several yards across.

This lake was surrounded by California bears 
that fattened on this honey.  They would toil 
about ‘Honey Lake‘, as we called it, through
the day, only leaving it long enough to visit 
‘Vinegar Pond‘, a mile distant, to quench their 
inordinate thirst created by continually 
lapping honey from this lake.  We were 
constantly supplied with the juiciest and most 
delicately flavored bear steaks from the bears 
we would shoot while on there way from 
Honey Lake to Vinegar Pond.

These bears were very docile, as they were 
never hungry, and believe me when I tell you,
it was a common thing for members of our 
prospecting party to mingle with the bears 
at the lake side.  They never offered to resent 
any intrusion from us; they were in fact less 
savage than so many fattening hogs.

This particular variety of California bee is 
much larger than our bees.  They average about
the size of sparrows.  The queen is as large as a 
robin.  Not far from this particular bee tree was 
located an immense nest of yellow jackets, about 
the size of humming birds.  This nest was  suspended 
between two of the largest of the giant trees and 
was three or four times the size of the dome of 
the Capital at Washington, D.C.  It was these 
yellow jackets that had created the crack in 
the bee tree, through which the honey flowed 
that created Honey lake.  The yellow jackets 
drilled the crack with their stingers and thieved 
upon the honey that ran out until one day,
the bees organized a night attack on the
yellow jackets nest.

Aerial Attack by Night.

While in camp one night telling stories over 
our supper of broiled bear steak and delicious 
honey, with natural grown pickled cucumbers 
and pickled pigs feet fresh from the pen, we 
were startled by a terrific roaring that resembled
the sound of a distant waterfall. We strengthened 
the fastenings of our tent and got inside, expecting 
a terrible storm to burst upon momentarily.

After several minutes of suspense we ventured 
outside, and beheld in the distance the strangest 
sight imaginable. The night force of bees were 
all out and flying in regular line of battle, some 
fifty lines deep,  I should judge. The constant 
flashes from their illuminated wings lighted 
the surrounding country for a half mile.  You 
could see to read as plainly as under an electric
light.

The roaring sound created by their wings 
was what we had believed to be the warning 
of a great storm.  We followed the direction 
the bees were taking and some came near 
the immense nest of yellow jackets suspended
between the trees.  The bees surrounded the 
yellow jacket citadel by the million and soon 
covered the entire outside until the dome like 
shape of the yellow jacket nest glowed with 
the constant flashing of the wings of the bees,
making it resemble an immense ball of fire.

The yellow jackets inside the nest were at the 
mercy of the bees, who tore large holes in 
the nest and stung to death the yellow jackets 
as fast as they were reached, and who were 
evidently bewildered by the flashing lights
from the illuminated wings of the bees. The 
roaring sound created by the bees was 
augmented by that of the doomed yellow jackets.

The fight lasted approximately three hours 
and the next morning the ground was covered
eight or ten feet deep with the dead bodies 
of the yellow jackets and bees for rods. The 
great dome like nest of the yellow jackets 
looked as though a cyclone had struck it.  The
bees had simply annihilated the yellow jackets, 
however, and had lost thousands of their own 
number as well.

The second day after the battle the stench that 
arose from the scene of conflict was so great 
that we were obliged to move our camp two 
miles away.  I have never cared for honey flavored
bear steak, pickled cucumbers or pickled pigs feet  
since that time. I tell you, it’s the solemn truth, 
if ever I spoke it in my life!  

Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/

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