~*Bye Bye Bees*~

Hello Dear Friends! Some of you may remember me posting about bees in our barn. We have lived here 4 years... and it was a big surprise to us this year to have bees move into a knot hole in our barn.

This has been the best year for our fruit trees, so I suppose the bees were good to have around. We had a ton of yummy apricots & are enjoying ripe plums now. Soon we will have nectarines, pears, and grapes. (Our apple tree didn't do so well... but we think it is probably too old to harvest any goodies.)

We had heard the bees were not safe in the knot hole. We had been told they could over-crowd themselves and die. Plus we were concerned about structure damage to our old barn. Several weeks ago, I began calling to see if someone was interested in taking them. Two sounded interested and came out to look, but never came back. Well, while in town one day last week, I spotted a truck with a magnetic sticker advertising a beekeeper. I quickly grabbed my cell phone and called. She was very interested and made an appointment to come out to see 'em.

The beekeeper, Barbara is her name, showed up as promised and quickly set up a plan to move the bees. It was so interesting watching her work and hearing her talk to the bees. She kept telling them "be nice girls" as she smoked the hive, set her boxes, and moved the honeycomb. She has been by three times now and will be back at least once more as there is still a box in the barn collecting the "girls".









Did she get stung? Yes, at least 3 times. She would talk to the bee and say, "Bad girl. Be nice."

How did we get honeycomb pictures of her working to remove it? Well, she had an extra jacket that fit my dear Tony. He wore it to help open the wall to get to the bees and stood by to work as her assistant. Luckily, he didn't get stung at all. He was also able to snap a couple of pictures so we could see the honeycomb too.



Barbara is taking the bees to a safe location. She is still unsure if she has the Queen of this hive, but has a positive outlook for the colony. She is sure to harvest a lot of honey from them as well.

Wishing you all warm smiles...

Betty