Bees

When we got home from softball Thursday night this is what was waiting for us! A swarm of honey bees! I was about to get out the car when Sydney spotted them a few feet from her car window. I promptly shut my door and backed out of the driveway and parked at the neighbors. Bill got home and we tried calling Terminix but no one was on call, then we tried 911 but they were no help. Bill went around the back of our house and snuck in the side door and then let us in the front. We goggled bee keepers and got a hold of a guy named Brandon who told us not to worry they were harmless. He said they would not sting unless they were about to die. He promised to come over in the morning and bring a bee box to collect them.

Bill recorded a few videos of the process. Brandon applied lemongrass oil on inside of the drawer in the box and scooped some bees and moved them over to the box. He did get stung a few times and he said they were one of the most aggressive swarms he has been around. It turns out that a chemical that Terminix applies to our house was killing some of the bees (hundreds in fact) and that is why they were aggressive. After dark he came back to collect the boxes with all the bees safely inside. He estimated that there were 10,000-25,000 bees in the swarm. It was a bit scary especially at first and then very interesting.