Queen Bee

If I was better with photoshop, I would draw a nice little arrow, pointing out the queen bee in this picture. As it is, she is the longer bee in the middle. In this household, I am the queen bee.
A couple of weeks ago, my husband brought home seventy-five "empty" bee hives. Notice, he unloaded these "empty" hives with only gloves on. No special suit. No hat or net.
Low and behold, there were three working hives in this group. Don't ask me how he didn't know it but he didn't.
Today, I worked up the courage to face my fears and interact with the bees. I've been terrified and slightly resentful of the invasion of my space by these little creatures.

See the darker, gray section in the top left corner of this frame? That is capped honey. When the frame is fully capped, it can be shaved off and the honey spun out. What I didn't realize is how easy it is to become fascinated by them. They are the epitome of organization and productivity. Hence, "busy as a bee!" Shawn and I checked the hives at the house.

We then drove out to Meme and GG's to check one of the hives out there. I think it may be the best hive we have going so far. If you are wondering why we are doing all of this checking, it is because bees sometimes decide to leave there hive and swarm. How do we know this? Because Friday afternoon, I looked out the back door and noticed that the bees from the hive in our back yard were flying around in a big, undulating circle. I called Shawn and he and his friend, Jason, came out to check it. When they got here, this is what they found...

Half the bees left their hive, following a queen, and swarmed to this tree branch.
Luckily, Shawn works for the electric coop. He brought home this "pogo stick" which is a long stick with a saw on the end. Seriously, this thing requires some hard work!
He proceeded to cut down the branch containing the swarm.

When it fell, they both seemed frozen for a few seconds. Neither saying a word. I could only imagine what was going through their heads... "Holy crap! Whatta we do now?"
The bees fill up with honey in preparation for their search for a new home. They are so full that they are almost catatonic. They literally landed in a heap and just lay there. Of course, if I just fell 30 feet out of a tree, I would probably just lay there too. That is totally beside the point.
They let the bees crawl up on the leaves and then,
shake them off into the box. Another job well done. Two engineers putting their educations to good use!