I liked the simplicity of my one-fingered posts, and so am going to stick with it for awhile.
I know it just looks like flowers, but in the photo above are many bees from a humongous BEE SWARM I heard outside my house. The day before we had noticed some bees in the back bedroom and in the bathroom – but I really did not imagine the size (and loudness) of the swarm to come.
A huge bee ball, of sorts, had formed on a pipe on the side of the house. So I got this photo.
Hours later they had mostly disappeared. I mentioned it to Austin, who found that they had moved INTO the side of the house. If Only I Had Told Him, when the bees were on the pipe – he could have swept them down into a box easily. OOPS.
Now – not so easy.
Austin tried opening the wall of the house, but it is too well built. Well, that’s good, but inconvenient. On to Plan B.
Austin elevated an empty bee box beside the hole, and put in sheets of honey, in the hope of luring them all out of the house and into the bee box. You notice how he’s not wearing a bee suit? He says they are not aggressive because they have no honey to defend.
This plan is not working all that well yet. The queen is still in the wall, and so this afternoon Austin will be breaking the wall from the inside to get them out. Just ducky. (Why didn’t I think to tell him when I saw the bees???? Won’t suffer THAT oversight again!)
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Other news from the valley, our neighbor says there is a new species of MONGOOSE in the area now – a bigger, darker one that is tough enough to attack full-grown chickens. Rats! Time to get out the mongoose trap again….
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Happy week, everybody.
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Flora and Fauna Weekly Report 