Bee Lady's Third Visit...yep....

The bees decided on a third act this weekThey decided on a piece of garden art....A BEE!

So....I called the very patient and sweet Bee Lady again and she thought she'd try a new technique that DH suggested....

Bag 'em up.... And mooooove em out...

It worked...minimal agitated bees going to a new home

The Bee Lady Cometh....saving the bees..one swarm at a time

Deborah bee suitin' up...

Brushing the bees into the portable bee box

Bees getting a little agitated

Really REALLY agitated!

Not long after this shot, the bees started fiercely meandering and one landed on my cheek and left its stinger...Lady K and I headed inside most speedily then.

We think Bee Lady got most of the swarm, she'll be back to get the rest this evening when they've had a chance to mellow.

The bees started swarming again this afternoon and packed in on the water hose and the corner of the house on the downspout, so a call to Bee Lady was in order. Had a discussion with neighbors as the bees came out and several phone calls have ensued since as the bees are working their swarm mojo all over town. I am just glad that people want to spare the bees and let someone give them a good home...the word is getting out!!!

Please! Don't Kill the Bees!!

When you see something like this swarm of bees on a tree or near the house....please DO NOT immediately go get the insecticide and spray them down. PLEASE, instead, call your county or state extension office and ask for the phone number of a local beekeeper who will be more than happy to come get them and take them to a new location. WE NEED BEES PEOPLE!
We have this cottonwood tree in our front lawn. If it were not for the shade the tree provides, the falcons who come back each year to nest in it and the hive of bees that lives in the hollow, that tree would be gone. But because of the shade, falcons and, most importantly, the bees, we keep the tree and put up with the crappy seed pods, sticky blooms that leave purple marks on the pavement and the leaves that we have to rake and bag each fall....the many many many bags of leaves.....
So the bees hatched a new queen this year. The older queen took some of the hive and moved out, but it's been cold this week and they sort of hung out on the side of the tree. DH looked it up and this is normal behavior. He asked me to look up info on who we could call to come get them and relocate this swarm. We know the importance of bees in the world. I called yesterday, Deborah came over on her lunch hour to get as many as she could. She hopes she got the queen. She called to say that she'd be back for the rest that evening. When she got back, the swarm had moved on, DH told her he'd seen them down the street on a big Mugho pine. By the time she got down there, the bees were dead. The DUMB-ASS house owner saw the bees in his tree, freaked the hell out and immediately sprayed them down with insecticide. Deborah knocked on his door to explain exactly what it was he had done, but doesn't think she got through his dumb-ass thick skull.
So I am hoping to let you all know by way of my blog....PLEASE DON'T KILL THE BEES!!! We need them! Or we don't get tomatoes...
Or these GORGEOUS blooms

Or these...

Or these....which the butterflies obviously dig, too

And my happy little chocolate flower...