Here's the Buzz

The honeybees in our column continue to work.  They work building their colony within the column and work pollinating.  They'll also make honey although we have no means of accessing it.  We enjoy having them around.  Let me restate that.  I enjoy having them around.  Tricia?  Not so much.  She has repeatedly stated that it is not very hospitable to have a swarm of bees at the entrance to our home, but these bees have never stung anyone.  They are friendly bees.

This evening I stepped outside to check them out.  They're coming in after a hard day's work and long commute.  "Honey, I'm home!"  I think I heard one say.  (Sorry for the bad joke)  They enter the column from an opening where the column meets the roof of the entryway.

At night, the honeybees don't rest.  They continue to work.  One of the odd things they do is burial detail.  The bees remove their dead brethren and toss them out of the hive where they lie at rest for the viewing.  Then Tricia sweeps them into the flower bed.  Each night there are 10 to 15 (at least) dead bees.

As I was watching the bees, I recalled an incident from my youth - not with bees, but with hornets!  It was around the year 1976.  I was ten years old and we moved from town out to the country.  Five whole acres of woods to roam around and explore.  We didn't spend a lot of time indoors.  We made trails.  We built forts.  We dug up sassafras trees and made tea.  We dug holes.  We also found a Coral snake and Copperhead moccasins.  We found Black Widow Spiders and Bull Nettle, a stinging plant.

We were at an area of the property we named "Muddy Village" There was a stand of sweet gum trees that we needed to build a log-cabin-like camp.  With ax in hand I began to chop the tree.  It was perhaps 10 inches in diameter.  As I chopped, I began to become aware of a strange humming sound, getting louder and more pronounced with each swing of my ax.

Finally, I looked up and saw a big hornet nest attached about 20 feed up to a branch in the tree I was chopping.  Not only that.  The hornets were not INSIDE the nest.  They were quite agitated with my chopping.  They were swarming.  They identified the source of their agitation - ME, and decided to come after me.  

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I dropped the ax, hollered at my brother, and we began running at a pace that would have pushed any Olympian star you can think of.  We were scared!  We finally made it back to safety without getting stung.  But we learned our lesson.  We didn't venture out to Muddy Village again until it was winter.  The hornet nest had actually fallen out of the tree and was lying on the ground.  It was the size of a basketball.  Fortunately, its occupants were gone.  We poked at it with a stick, counting our blessings for not getting stung by a swarm of hornets.

Fast-forward 44 years.  I like our bees.  I still hate hornets.  The honeybees can stay.  If, however, hornets move in, I guarantee you, they will not be welcomed.  We will evict them - with fire!