Bee-gone!

Wow! What a night! Emily from  AZ Queen Bee came out last night about 8 PM and took care of our bee problem, which turned out to be more extensive than we had thought. The whole extraction process took about an hour and a half.  She said that normally wild hives have about 10,000 bees, but estimated there were about 50,000 in the hive under our Bridge to Nowhere (which is going somewhere soon...most likely to the landfill!) There was not much honey, but a lot of bees, eggs, and larvae in the hive. The queen apparently took the Edenic command to "be fruitful and multiply" quite seriously. Fortunately, these were fairly docile creatures, as bees go.

After suiting up, Emily used a vacuum device to suck up the bees into bee boxes for transport to their new home. She wound up filling three bee boxes. Here's what they look like:

She then upended the bridge so that she could scrape out the honeycombs underneath. Practically the whole bottom surface of the bridge was covered in honeycomb. Here's a picture of her holding up a section of it:

Mike was a little more daring than I was in, and got in close enough to take some pictures and a short video of the bees swarming the underside of the bridge. Here's a screen shot taken from the video, which turned out much better than the still shots did:

And here's the video:

Oddly enough, Mike didn't get stung, even though he got in closer than I did. I got stung once on the leg and decided not to go any closer. BTW, if you get stung, take the stinger out as quickly as possible, ice it for several minutes, then put toothpaste on it. This is the least painful bee sting I've ever had.

Emily said that it might take several days for bee stragglers to dissipate. This morning, we saw several dozen flying around, I assume looking for their former home. She also told us that "robber bees" from several miles around might wander in after catching the scent of the disturbed honey and wax. 

If you're ever in need of a beekeeper, I highly recommend the AZ Queen Bee! She is very knowledgeable and professional. I found the experience very interesting and educational. 

To Bee Continued

 I put up a "help me" post in the Desert Gardeners of Maricopa County Facebook group and got a response from someone whose brother is a beekeeper. She came out today, along with her nephew, to scope things out in advance.  The pictures I took yesterday were from my camera phone, which only has a digital zoom. Mike took these today with his "real" camera, which has an optical zoom.

There appear to be three distinct clusters of bees hanging from the underside of the bridge. We think they came in after Friday's heavy rains, because I first noticed them on Saturday, and because right after a rainstorm is when a hive is most likely to split off to form a new hive. These bees must think they have found paradise in our Arizona Backyard Eden...a shady, protected spot, lots of flowers, and easy access to water in our ponds. However, what is paradise for bees might be called something else by humans living in close proximity to them.

Hopefully, the father-and-son beekeeping team will be here today or tomorrow to escort our bee friends to a home that will be a better fit for them than this spot behind our pool.

Bees where I don't want them

A couple of days ago on my walkabout in the yard, I noticed an unusual number of bees in an area behind our pool, near the fence line. We have a decorative wooden bridge we call "The Bridge To Nowhere" there, and they have apparently set up housekeeping under it. Although they are not particularly aggressive bees, they cannot stay where they are. I really don't want to kill them if I can avoid it, because there is such a problem with bee population decline. I called a couple of beekeepers that people in the Desert Gardeners Facebook group recommended, and hopefully they will be relocated to a better home soon.

August overview

We've spent most of July clearing out the raised beds for fall planting. Summers here are like winters elsewhere...not much fun and not much success in the garden. Serious gardeners extend the growing season by putting up shadescreen over their vegetable beds, but we usually don't; we just give everything a rest.

An unexpected consequence of our conversion of the grass pathways to gravel was the loss of several more trees in the summer heat. In addition to the apple tree, a plum and a fig tree started showing signs of severe decline. My theory is that the tree roots were shallow and spread out because of the grass watering pattern, and couldn't adapt to a drip irrigation system.

If you're wondering what to plant in August, here's a list: We planted beans, carrots, lettuce, and summer squash in the smaller bed nearest the house and are going to try corn (again) in the larger bed by the streambed.