Miss Daisy's Quilting Bee

In many parts of the country, the old-fashioned quilting bee is a thing of the past. it is an activity many young people have only heard of, even in today's rural communities. It has gone to keep company with other ghosts of our American heritage, like the once popular barn-raising and corn-husking gatherings.

Much innocent fun is lost today because of this. Perhaps, without it, as women, we are robbed of the solid comfort of discussing for hours such topics as our neighborhood affairs, recipes, and our children or spouses -- over fashioning "herrin' bones" and "feather patterns" in a "double-nine patch," while our tongues fly as fast as our needles.

I'd like to do justice to this story, of what we might be missing in today's fast paced world, in the telling about a certain quilting party my grandmother once told me about. I prefer to tell it in the words of the original storyteller. You see, she was Miss Daisy and knew the story best, because it happened to her.

"I'd made a pretty red, green, and yellow quilt, she said, 'with a white background, baskets, urns, and a green vine trailing all around the edge.' The quilt top took premium at our Jefferson County, Missouri fair."

"After it was in the frame, I invited ten of the best quilters I knew to come help quilt it. Among those women attending my party, was Gladys. She was an excellent quilter, perhaps a little strange as a person, but very lively and somewhat antic."

"There was never better company than Gladys. Her tongue maintained a steady clicket-clack the whole enduring time. She's kept everyone laughing. Back then, she and one of the homeliest little yellow dogs I've ever seen. A miserable, ill-natured cur dog that wasn't fit for anything under the sun. However, Gladys thought the world of this unsightly creature."

"It followed at her heels wherever she went. Naturally, the dog came with her to the quilting bee. Before everyone got there, the senseless thing tried to crawl under our Kalazoo kitchen wood stove, but I drove him out with the broom. The last view I had of him at the time, was the end of his tail whisking under the barn."

"We had that summer, in the orchard near the barn, about thirty stands of bees. Apiculture, the raising and care of bees was a hobby of mine. Now, most people don't know it, but there are as many different breeds of bees as there are breeds of cattle or sheep. I was trying to crossbreed Cyprian bees, (an East India bee) with our native brown or black bee."

"I had read that a single colony of Cyprian bees can produce a thousand pounds of honey, compared to the ten or twelve pounds of native American bees. However, one thing I didn't know back then, was that Cyprian bees, while industrious, are very cross and spiteful."

"Now, one of Gladys' dog's peculiarities was his inordinate liking of honey. Unlike most dogs, he preferred it to meat. My brothers would sometimes give him honey just for the novelty of seeing him eat it and get it all over himself in the process. The bigger novelty of seeing how upset Gladys would get, when she found out she had a sticky dog to bathe, also tickled their funny-bones."

"Well, an hour or more after I had driven him outside, the dog must have endeavored to get more honey out of one of the bee-gums. Afterwards, we found one of them upset and lying on its side on the ground. I am sure that every bee in the hive must have darted out and settled on that dog when he tipped it over. There must have been one bee for every hair on him."

"The first thing we knew of the problem was when we heard an unnatural yelp. All of us at the quilting frame looked at each other, but before we could question what was happening, the room became unnaturally alive. A moment later, here came the brute, covered with swarming bees and another cloud of angry insets right behind him. Before anyone could stop him, he dashed into my living room, darted between two fo the women. he went under the quilt frame as if he'd been shot. There, he rolled and howled so loud that you could have heard him a mile away."

"Well, I never saw such a time and such a scattering of women. Their screeching and the howls of that dog made an unearthly chorus. Just about every one of the women jumped on their chairs. Most were throwing about their arms and flapping their skirts. Then old Miss' Josephine, who weighed at least two hundred and fifty pounds, for reasons unknown, threw herself on the quilt, ripping it out of the frame and falling down on the dog. This drove the yelping cur from his retreat, with his mouth open, bees still on his back, over to a nearby day bed. This is where Lucindy had taken refuge and was screeching. The dog began clawin' at her false hair, in some desperate effort to drive the infuriated bees away."

"I reckon we were over three hours fighting those bees and driving the last of them out of the house. Then, we spent another hour applying a solution of aqua ammonia to our stings, using up the entire supply I had on hand."

"Later, when everyone thought all danger was gone, one of the bees popped down from some hiding place. He planted his sting on the back of cousin Pearl's neck. She gave the worst screech and throwing out her hand, ran her sewing needle about half an inch into Salinda's arm.

There was a duet of new screeches and then the disgusted women concluded to go home and nurse their wounds. The comments upon Gladys' dog were more emphatic than scriptural. It was many weeks before some of them would speak to me again."

"Your Uncle Phil said, "It was literally a 'quilting bee," but advised me the next time I had a quilting party, I should make sure no bees were invited."

African Honey Bees (AHB) are a failed experiment, much like my Grandmother's attempt to cross Cyprian bees, only on a much more global and frightening manner. They were being bred to produce a variety of honey bees that were better in tropical climates.

Once they discovered that they were so aggressive, the breeding program was put aside. Unfortunately, twenty-six African queen bees escaped from the breeding program in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Once the bees from this failed experiment escaped, they began establishing and expanding their ranges throughout South and Central America. Since 1990, they have invaded many parts of the U.S.

Places around your home where Africanized bees may locate potential hives:

• Storage sheds
• Wood piles
• Flower pots
• Bird houses
• Empty containers
• Cinder blocks
• Mail boxes
• Culverts
• Meter boxes
• Attics
• Air conditioners
• Barbecue grills
• Chimneys
• Rain gutters
• Roof vents
• Buckets
• Cans
• Fence cavities
• Inside tree cavities
• In the ground
• Agricultural valves

How to tell the difference between Africanized honey bees and European honey bees, is a little tricky. They are similar in appearance, response to venom, and both sting only once.

It is nearly impossible to distinguish the two bee varieties visually. However, there are huge differences in their behaviors:

• Africanized honey bees sting aggressively whereas European honey bees are less defensive.
• European honey bees only swam once or twice a year vs. Africanized honey bees, who have sixteen times the swarms per year.
• Africanized honey bees will attack in much larger numbers, at least ten times that of a European honey bee.
• Africanized honey bees will not care where they nest vs. European honey bees who are very selective about where they nest.
• Africanized honey bees do not need provocation to defend their nests.
• Africanized honey bees will chase you for a longer distance, but generally not more than a quarter of a mile. So, your best defense is to outrun them. Run and then run some more if you are alone.

It's important to understand that very often other stinging insects besides the Africanized honey bees are the victims of mistaken identity, when it comes to honey bees -- learn the difference! Here are some examples:

• European Honey Bee
• Yellow Jacket
• Paper Wasp
• Bumble Bee
• Baldfaced Hornet
• Horse Fly
• Deer Fly
• Yellow Fly
• Carpenter Bee 

• Honey bees have their own language
• Honey bees dance for their companions to indicate the location of food
• Honey bee queens decide the sex of their eggs
• Honey bee males (drones) have but one purpose, to mate
• Honey bee females eventually bump off the useless males
• One pound of honeybee honey takes the nectar of 8.7 million flowers
• Honey bee hives produce about seventy pounds of honey each week
• There are different races of honeybees and each has their own bee dialect
• Each honey bee species has their own unique dispositions

Bee keepers (Apiarists) both here in the U.S. and around the world are dealing with a complex and highly disturbing problem -- bees are suddenly missing from hives. This phenomenon is called "Colony Collapse Disorder" or CCD.

Inside of hives the bee keepers are finding only the queen, the immature brood, and honey -- but no adult worker bees! Most of the time they can't even find the dead adult missing bees and the few bodies they have found have shown no clear cut defined reason.