Bees

Since my wife and son are on an extended trip, I am at home with Maggie.  So I’ve been going home for lunch and taking her for a walk around the neighborhood every day.  And then I go back to work for a few hours and come home for another walk, and to play ball somewhat endlessly.  I saw that there was a couple of trees down after the big wind and rain storm we had on Sunday night, so I walked her down there today (not our usual route) to take a look at them. 

Turns out the trees didn’t fall down, the nursing home had cut them down preemptively, ’cause they were very certainly dead (see picture below, clicking to enlarge).

The woman in the bee-proof clothing is Louise, who was working with John, another beekeeper to attempt to save the bees by helping them to migrate their hive.  Apparently the inside of the tree was an excellent place to have a hive, with maybe 50 lbs of honey.  The idea was to lure a bunch of their scouts into this box that smells really nice (to bees, but it smelled pretty nice to me, too).  And then the queen would follow the scouts.  John didn’t think that the probability of success was all that good.  But I am hoping for the best.

John said I could go under the caution-tape, then asked if I was allergic to bee-stings.  I said that I am not allergic, although I remember that it hurts a lot when you get stung.  I have an aversion to bees.  Louise kindly took this picture with my cell phone camera. 

Is that cool, or what?