I had just thought of posting when I saw one episode included something about it. What is the origin? Spelling BEE?! Â Rafee
I thought I knew this, at one time. Â But OED says "Sense of 'meeting of neighbors to unite their labor for the benefit of one of their number', 1769, Amer.Eng., probably is from comparison to the social activity of the insect; this was extended to other senses (e.g. spelling bee, first attested 1809; also hanging bee 'a lynching').", and it doesn't sound familiar.
I can recall my mother and my aunts getting together for what they called quilting bees, where they'd take scraps of old material and sew them into magnificent patchwork quilts. I think my sister still has one of those heirlooms. I too have never heard of a hanging bee.