Outside activity increased to a loud drone at the end of last week in our hometown with spring showing its wings and stings. It was such a warm and beautiful day on Thursday, pears and cherry trees in bloom, bees busy, and people out mowing, it seemed a good idea to look for an excuse to drive over to revisit Fred L. Pack. He had recently called to tell me that people should be aware that bees could soon be swarming. I thought the mites and disease had killed all the bees, but this was a wrong impression. The last time I visited Fred was about two years ago concerning his interest in trapping otters. In front of his Angela Circle home, adjacent to the rear of Union Cemetery, there is a brick wall along his driveway. On the wall were two stuffed otters, he had trapped years ago. Several small dogs ran about the yard. Fred was resting in a lawnchair drinking coffee that afternoon. On April 17, Fred will turn 79 and he still likes to trap otters and also take care of bees, something he has done since a boy growing up in Del Rio. He mentioned the price for otter skins has fallen from $150 to $40 and he blamed the Dali Lama for condemning the killing of the animals. Fred said the number of otters has been increasing for years and you find them well inland away from their more natural habitat along major rivers and creeks. He recalled that B.A. Ramsey had a problem with three otters going to his pond and eating the fish. Likewise, Jimmy Adams also reported otter attacks. "Their jaws are so strong they can break any bone in your body. Well, I though that was a good reason to stay away from them. Otters eat eight to 10 pounds of fish a day and live the good life along the river. That's why trapping during the season that opens in November for several months is allowed. Trapping and beekeeping were among the things Fred learned. He recalled that Charlie Shipley taught him about bees because Nathan and Bob Ford were too lazy as boys to help Charlie, said Fred. We got off the subject for a few minutes, because Fred asked if I knew that his neighbor Billy Jack Martin was suffering from cancer. This is something the retired Stokely Brothers supervisor learned just months ago. "I've known him ever since the Korean War." They had met overseas. Fred joined the Army and later it became the Air Force so he stayed long enough to retire. Those from Del Rio will know that Fred is the son of Nathan Pack and Lena Jones Pack, of Laurel Fork. You may recall a column I did more than a year ago on Fred's older brother, Frank Pack, who is in his 80s and still operating a saw mill off Asheville Highway. Brother Leonard Pack is dead. They have a sister, Virginia Ross, of Huntsville, Alabama. Fred has two sons working in the oil industry as welders: Fred Pack Jr. and Brian Pack. His other son is Bruce Pack, of Newport, and there is a daughter, Debra Nichols, of Green Acres. Back to the bee story. There were multitudes of what Fred called wild or German black bees in the mountains 50 or more years ago. Later, these gave way to an Italian variety. During recent decades small bugs called mites have been attacking US bees and killing them by the millions and maybe billions. I thought the extreme unexpected cold last April had finished the remaining ones off, but Fred's hives were really buzzing. He is not a commercial beekeeper but his friends Gary Strange and Tony Holt are. We walked up to his hives shaded by pear trees in bloom. Fred had on his white coveralls and a bee bonnet and gloves handy. But he was not wearing them when he pulled out one of the frames to show me how much honey the bees had made over the winter. The top section of the hive weighed more than 30 pounds, he said. The point of Fred's call for me to visit was to let people know that bees naturally swarm as a way to create new colonies. Some years ago he was called to go to the East Broadway Food City where a swarm had landed in a potted plant in front of the store. Because it was early spring, the bees were gorged with their hive honey and not very aggressive. He picked up the pot and plant and drove it to his house just off Morrell Springs and gave the bees a new home and hive. It was mid afternoon Thurs, as we moved closer to Angela Circle where a hive stood with a lot of bee activity. The lawn was full of purple henbit. Fred said his bees are a Russian variety that had been introduced into the US long ago. These bees had developed some resistances against mites. I asked Fred if it would be OK to move up within a couple of feet at the front of the hive to shoot some photos. The bees were pouring in. It is not unusual for a single hive to have more than 20,000 bees, he said. After shooting several close-ups, I slowly backed away. One of the bees must have been offended at having his photo made and flew into by face stinging me on the nose between my eyes. Fred was not laughing. I was not laughing as he removed the stinger. About that time the mailman drove up and hollered. He noticed I had gotten stung and said, "Fred is too mean to get stung." In plain talk, sometimes you have to get outside and look closely at what's happening rather than to check the statistics or operate on false assumptions.