Allen Writes  
>have thought of bioengineering a honey bee/firefly so  they'd have their own 
lights - joking of course.

Hi All,

No need to bio-engineer. 
I am astonished that there are so 
many educated people who never 
knew that honeybees would mate 
with the firefly.  

The Sunday Herald
Sunday, March 28, 1897 Syracuse, New York

Strange Battle

Recalled by "Forty-niner"
of Cortland

And Told in His Own Words

Incident Brought to Mind by
Farmer Webster's Bees.

Remarkable Conflict Between California
Honeybees and Yellow Jackets, Near
Vinegar Pond, Where Pickled
Cucumbers Grew.

Portland, March 27 - "I am astonished
that there are so many educated
people that never knew that honey
bees would mate with lightning bugs
until they read of a case of the kind
that occurred in Trexton in last Sundays
Hearald." said an old California
Forty-niner to a reporter for the
Herald today.

"It was common practice among
bees and lightening bugs in California
when I was there." said he. "Off in
the region where pickled cucumbers
grew upon the vines and upon which
we fatted and pickled pork on the hoof,
as I told you a few weeks ago, and
where the giant California trees grew,
it was no uncommon thing for prospectors
for gold 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.

"I remember of finding a bee tree
one day, 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.
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
rods across.

"This lake was surrounded by hundreds
of 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 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 thrived
upon the honey that ran out until
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 since that time."

Borrowed from:
Files > 15) Tall Tales - Bee Stories
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/

Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle

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