Bumble Bees

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Source: Edward Ellsworth Laughlin (In his own words.)

In the old days in the country, we kids had to invent our own entertainment. One such fun thing to do was an adventure as well as entertaining.

First we needed to find a bumble bee hive. Bumble bees burrow into the ground. They carry the dirt away so that it does not show the location of the tunnel.

We could watch the bees coming and going and locate the hive. The entrance was very small, about a half-inch across. It was usually in tall grass along a fence row.

The next thing that was needed was a wooden paddle. A board about four inches wide and three feet long worked fine. Next, we would whittle a handle into one end.

With this, we were ready to play our game. We usually needed two or three brave boys or girls. One kid would punch the opening of the bee hive with the paddle. Then every one would run as fast as they could, turning as they go to swat the angry bees.

After repeating this fun game for a while, we usually would kill most of the bees. We could then dig out the hive and get to the honey, if we weren’t too badly stung by then. Bumble bee honey is found in dark capsules about an inch long.

This was a pretty wild game and not too many kids were able to try the honey. I was not very good at this sport, because I always liked the bumble bees too much.

I once read that some engineers somewhere had determined that bumble bees were not designed to fly well. I lost a lot of respect for engineers after I read that, because I knew better.

For more stories about the Laughlin families, visit Laughlin Family Stories.