DCHP-1 Online
dry bee Hist. 
a bee at which no liquor was served.
- 1836 [Several "raisings" have taken place this Spring, at which scarcely any liquor has been seen, and at which there has been no drunkeness; and it is to be immediately tried whether a "bee" cannot be mustered at which no spirits will be used. Men who stated as their only reason for not joining, was that they could get no men to come to a raising without spirits, have been told to try, and if none will come the members of the Temperance Society will do the work.]
- 1960 To combat the liberal dispensing of liquor at the bees which accompanied the raisings of buildings like barns and mills, the township's Quakers instituted "dry bees" which became more common with the spread of temperance societies.
- 1836 [Several "raisings" have taken place this Spring, at which scarcely any liquor has been seen, and at which there has been no drunkeness; and it is to be immediately tried whether a "bee" cannot be mustered at which no spirits will be used. Men who stated as their only reason for not joining, was that they could get no men to come to a raising without spirits, have been told to try, and if none will come the members of the Temperance Society will do the work.]