Invasion

A couple of weeks ago, Bobby sent me an instant message saying there was a bee buzzing around the light in the back room, and when he went to check it out, he noticed a few dead bees nearby. We don't have a lot of bees in the yard, so it seemed strange. But sure enough, each day there seemed to be a bee near the light, and dead bees around it.

Sometime last week, on a quiet morning, he made me get out of be and stand silently in our bedroom doorway. "Do you hear that?"
Very sleepily, "No."
"Be really quiet and listen."

And then I heard it. Very faintly, I could hear a low buzzing, and the sound of bees running into the backside of the wall.
"I hear it!"
"We have bees in the wall."

I have never known anyone with bees inside the wall. None of us are allergic, so I wasn't too concerned, but wow! So I did what any renter would do in this situation - I called my landlord.

"Mom, we have a beehive in the wall."
"Really?" She doesn't believe me. I told her about all our evidence - the dead bees around the light, the sound in the wall. She says she and dad will come by sometime soon and check it out. I mentioned that if there is a beehive, I would feel bad exterminating them because of the disappearing bee problem. She agreed, then we started talking about finding someone to transport them to a beekeeper, rather than exterminate them.

I first read about the disappearing bee problem in Fortune last September. Colony Colapse Disorder is affecting bee keepers nationwide, and they only have theories as to why the bees are leaving. Essentially, all the worker bees will leave the hive permanently, leaving behind everything. For the agricultural industry that relies on bees being brought in to pollinate crops, it is a huge problem.

So today, while my laundry was drying and my banana bread was baking (this time instead of 2 cups of All Purpose Flour and 1/4 cup Hazelnut Flour, I used 3/4 cup each of All Purpose Flour, Amaranth Flour, and Hazelnut Flour, and added 1/4 cup of Wheat Germ - it was tasty!) mom came by to investigate our invasion. After a minute or so, she heard them in the wall too, and we started looking up hive removal services. When dad got there he set up the ladder and put his ear right on the wall.

"Oh yeah! There are definetly bees in there." Then he climed on the roof, and found where they were getting in and out. We definitely have a hive!