The bees are in the house!
By
Photo by Clay Myers-Bowman
Well, not my house, but their house.
I’ve had a beehive in my backyard for the past 4 years and have posted photos of it before. Sadly, it didn’t make it through the winter. At least not in good enough shape to come back this spring. I saw the queen in March or April with a few hundred workers, but by the time May rolled around, there were only a few dozen left. Buying a new colony is quite expensive (one company sells a box of them for $185 plus shipping) so I decided to just wait until next year.
Then, this morning, I was out in the backyard and noticed that there were literally hundreds of bees flying around the abandoned hive box. Well, it’s abandoned no more. I opened it up to take a peek and there are literally thousands of bees taking up residence there and I happened to spot a queen! Bonus. It’s quite common for bee colonies to swarm and leave their home. One just happened to find my box all on their own.
Interestingly, when I phoned one of my beekeeping partners to tell her of my fortune, she said that maybe it was HER colony that had moved to my yard. Her’s had swarmed and left last week. No idea whether that happened or not, but I’ll share some honey with her if I’m able to harvest any.
Yea bees!
Clay Myers-Bowman 
Ok, stupid question: don’t they make you nervous? I mostly have wasps around my house, not bees. But if I could wave a wand and make them all go away, I sure would!
It was quite a rush to be so close to them at first (four years ago), but now, it seems normal. I haven’t been stung since 2011. I have friends who don’t wear any protective clothing or gloves, but I always wear my gear when I open the hive. However, if I’m just taking photos or hanging out watching them, I don’t bother with the gear. We’ve never been bothered by a bee in our backyard. I’ve even had one hit me in the forehead as I was standing near the hive. It just bounced off and kept flying toward the hive.
I totally get that some people are seriously allergic to bee stings and am not suggesting that keeping bees is risk-free. But for me, it’s worth the risk. Plus, it’s one of the small ways that I give back to the planet.