bee drama

I wasn't going to write about this because it makes me feel icky, both physically and emotionally. But it was a pretty significant breakthrough in my relationship with bees.

It all started a few Saturdays ago when I went to take the kids to Soccer and noticed about 20 dead bees on my driveway. Hmmm, odd. No biggie seeing as they were dead... I wondered where they came from but that was the end of it.

The next morning I noticed more dead bees on the driveway. I was a little more bothered this time so I called Dan at work and asked him if he knew anything about the bee corpses. He said that he had also noticed them the day before but didn't know where they were coming from.

So, when we pulled in the driveway after church, I told the girls, "Be careful where you step because there are a bunch of dead bees in the driveway and some of them aren't all the way dead and you guys are wearing flip flops. I don't know what's up with the bees but it's very strange."

Then Winter said, "Well they're probably coming from that beehive in our tree." Then Mya said, "Oh yeah she was talking about that yesterday. Oh look Mom, there it is!"

PANIC.

I didn't even want to look. And maybe if I didn't look, it wasn't real. It was just the girls imagining things. But I had to because of my responsibility to my house and children and there was a little curiosity there. Like a terrified curiosity. By the way, bees are at the top of my list of things that make me scream and run.

I sat in the car, windows rolled up, car on, doors locked and slowly looked up into my tree. The tree I just parked under. Yep, there it was.

Side note: Apparently, once the queen bee has used the worker bees, they die. Hence the bee corpses everywhere. Poor little guys. 

I watched the bees for a minute and they seemed like they just pretty much kept to their spot in the tree. So still completely freaked out, heart racing, I got the kids out of the car and managed not to have a heart attack on my way in the house.

I immediately called Dan. I told him the situation and asked him what to do. He requested a picture. I told him no way in hell, but then I remembered the awesome camera with the zoom lens we keep in our office. We never use it anymore because... well smart phones I guess. So I pulled it out, ran across the street and took the picture you see above. He said he'd take care of it when he got home. 

The next day, he tried to get a hold of guys he knew that knew guys that may want bees for personal hives. These people are professional beekeepers. A profession completely beyond scary to me. But we needed someone crazy like that to come and get the bees. 

I advertised everywhere on Facebook. I posted the pic in several groups in hopes someone would know someone who would come take these bees away for free. After about a week, we still had no takers. Dan had exhausted all of his possibilities and all I got in response to my posts were several comments either saying just wait a few days and they will be gone (nope) or how bees are on the endangered species list and I should not kill them. People really care about bees these days. But still no one was willing to take them away. There were a few people who would take the bees away and relocate them for about $100. I don't even want to know how they do that.

But I didn't want to pay $100. I didn't invite the bees. They just camped out on our tree. My neighbors were totally on board with paying someone $100 to come take the bees. They even offered to pay for it. It was actually closer to their driveway than ours. But I didn't want them to have to pay for it. It was our tree. They would secretly be bitter about the bees they paid to have removed for years to come. 

The hive began to grow longer and fatter and my neighbor began to grow more concerned so we decided we were going to just pay to have someone come out and handle it. 

I ended up getting a really good deal to have them killed. I'm a total bee murderer. 

I tried to get someone to take them away. I tried. But people wanted money. Money I didn't have. And this way, it was going to be next to nothing. And that beat $100. I checked with my neighbor and Dan and we all agreed. 

So the next morning the bees died in their sleep. I'd like to think they didn't feel any pain. 

That whole day I felt horrible. So much bee guilt. And to make it worse, I got a message from a beekeeper who said he would come out and take the bees for $40. Then I got another message from a pastor/bee keeper who said he would come out and take the bees for FREE. Ugh. I didn't answer or call them back. Then the $40 bee keeper kept calling. He left 5 messages. Why?! Why couldn't he just assume I wasn't interested? I didn't want to tell him I killed them. But he kept calling. I finally answered and told him quickly that I didn't need him anymore and thanked him and hung up. Whew. 

I still feel awful but I think in a weird way I've grown to like bees a little bit more. I've seen them in action. And what I thought would be my worst nightmare wasn't even bad. It was actually kind of cool. After around 6PM all the bees would go to sleep and they wouldn't even move a tiny bit. I felt brave enough to get a closer look. I was in awe. God made these little creatures. And it is so amazing that they all just know what to do all the time. 

And then I killed them. Sorry. This is a super depressing post. And slightly ridiculous. But obviously it really affected me. And that's why I wrote it. Anyway, that's what happened. I still have a bee-phobia but I think I've grown to not hate them. I've accepted their place in the world and I've heard without bees there would be no coffee so there's that. 

I'm so so sorry bees. I tried to save you... kind of.