Today's Word is
The life of a honey bee is so remarkable. About two years ago my husband became a bee
keeper. We went to a bee festival. He met several people and was invited to
come to one of their meetings. That was
the beginning. Since then we have
obtained several bee hives. He also
removes bees. Some of these cases have
been very easy, and several have been extremely difficult cases. His easiest removal was a swarm of bees
that had decided to take up residence in
an owl house. He was able to go in and use the bee vac he made to vacuum them
and the queen out. So we obtained
another hive this week.
He has had some that didn’t go quite as planned. He recently
removed bees from a historical house.
They were approximately 30 feet up and way back under the roof line.
They were so aggressive. When he first stepped out of his truck a bee flew up
his shorts and stung his leg. By the
time he got up the ladder three of them had managed to get in threw his veil
and sting him. It is remarkable that he
didn’t swell up very bad. A friend had
recommended a salve to put on his stings and between that and Benadryl there
was no swelling. The second day he went
out he was approximately 10 feet from the house when they began to attack him,
stinging his suit and gloves. Needless
to say they had to be euthanized. There are times you just can’t save them.
I have learned so much about bees. The drones are all males. Their only job is
to mate with the queen and then die. Any drone that did not mate with the queen
will be pushed out of the hive at the end of summer and will not be allowed
back in. The worker bees take care of the queen, the hive, the brood, gather
pollen and nectar to make honey. They live between 30 and 40 days. The queen can live up to five years. The bees
my husband rescued from the owl house started making wax for their comb the next
day. He has a hive that is way behind on
making any honey. I am looking forward
to getting our own honey from our own bees.
These insects are truly remarkable.
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