Church Bees

typical bee swarm (click on the picture to enlarge)

Our bee swarm

Bzzzzzz! A few weeks ago,  Dick and I stopped by church to do a little weeding, and we noticed that a large dark mass had appeared on a branch of one of the small oaks along Fruitville Road.  At first, we thought that it was a wasp nest, but luckily my grandfather had been a beekeeper and I realized that actually it was a “bee swarm”. (Apparently, there is a process where a queen bee will leave a colony and be followed by worker bees, forming a new colony.) Knowing how valuable honey bees are, but not knowing what to do about the “swarm”, we reached out to a beekeeper who came on Sunday at sunset, removed the swarm and took them to his aviary. He later reported that the swarm looked fine and that the bees were already creating a honeycomb in their new home.  The bee swarm was a marvel of nature to us, and we were thrilled that our church could contribute in a small way to the perpetuation of a very important insect.
​- Diane Happy