> That should be *gums* or skeps, not *guns* or skeps, although these days
one wonders.

Guns and skeps are not a good mix.

In the US Civil War (the one in 1862, not last week's attempt) during the
battle of Antietam, attacking Union troops faced bees from hives broken open
by Confederate artillery rounds.  The bees won.

The 132nd Pennsylvania were "green troops" - recruits who had never fought
before Antietam.  As they advanced to the farm of William Roulette, a
cannonball or mortar shell hit the bee yard. The bees were not happy -
"Soldiers were rolling in the grass, running, jumping, and ducking" wrote a
news reporter.  This made many of them attractive targets for the
Confederates, as there was very little cover.  The Roulette farm is now part
of the "Antietam National Battlefield", run by the Parks Service. There was
a photo taken just after the battle where one can see what looks like half a
dozen or so hives in a jumble dead center of the photo (attached).  (Some
accounts say that it was the 130th PA, not the 132nd.  I'm not sure which is
accurate.)  The farmer and his family hid in the basement during the battle,
a wise choice.

Also, deer hunters would use a beehive for target practice and scope
alignment now and again when I placed hives on sourwood in the George
Washington and Jefferson National Forests in VA, not much I could do about
it except patch up the boxes or replace them.  No one ever shot a queen.
(Sourwood favors a clear-cut or a burned-over area, so several years after a
fire or a "timber harvest", I'd be dragging hives in on a bear-proof-caged
trailer to make a crop.  Back then trail cams were too expensive.)  For the
record, I enjoy putting arrows and rounds through targets, and shooting clay
pigeons, and I am still pretty good at it, but civilization would have to
collapse to the point where even barter was no longer possible before I
would get hungry enough to shoot Bambi, as I've never liked venison.










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