(Under bee) In allusion to the social character of the insect (originally in U.S.): A meeting of neighbours to unite their labours for the benefit of one of their number; e.g. as is done still in some parts, when the farmers unite to get in each other's harvests in succession; usually preceded by a word defining the purpose of the meeting, as apple-bee, husking-bee, quilting-bee, raising-bee, etc. Hence, with extended sense: A gathering or meeting for some object; esp. spelling-bee, a party assembled to compete in the spelling of words.
Example | Meaning |
... he would go about the neighbours and he would say, "Now we will have a sawing bee on such a date" and there'd probably be, oh maybe eight men and uh, mother would uh, be cooking maybe two or three days ahead making pies and cakes and etcetera for these men that would come, they'd be there for dinner and supper and uh- |
Communal sawing work session. |
Example | Meaning |
Speaker 2: Building bees, building bees. They also had bees for other things too. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Oh they used to have threshing bees- Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker: Corn-cutting bees, wood-sawing bees. Speaker 2: So n-- everybody just came and did the work and ah- I- I- I admired that you-know? But maybe ah- maybe I'm wrong, maybe it was (inc)- Speaker 3: They had to get along or they wouldn't have survived. |
Communal sawing work session. |
Example | Meaning |
And after you fed the cattle and did the chores in the morning, you went to the woodlot and took the team of horses and the axe and the saw and you cut a load of wood. ... Or two or three, whatever you had time for and you hauled that home and you piled it up and you had a big pile o-- of logs or trees, timber. And then in the spring you had a wood-sawing bee, and the neighbours all came in and helped you saw the wood up. 'Cause basically everybody heated either with wood or coal. Nobody heated with oil back then. There was no hydro heating or-any-of-that. |
Communal sawing work session. |
Example | Meaning |
So- so that ah made it more difficult- you-know and- you lost the ah- like the old farmers use to all work together at bees. You'd have your sawing bee where there'd be twenty-eight people come to your house and you'd- you'd saw up a pile of wood into-into stove-wood length and then you had to split it by hand, of course. Then the next bee was the corn cutting where you'd- when they started building silos you-you'd have twenty-five or twenty-eight men come again ah- they'd just changed hands of course with- with ah the neighbours. And ah the women- there might be two or three women that would help ... |
Communal sawing work session. |