Let it Bee

Dad’s latest home improvement project is straightening out the back fence which has been starting to zig and zag a bit as the posts have shifted in the unstable ground. The other day they got started with help from Sandy’s brother Bill and a handyman named Don. The fence panels were removed and stacked for reuse then the crew went to tear down the old dilapidated shed in the corner.

They had gotten most of the outbuilding demoed but when they went to pull up the wood framed floor they encountered a major bee hive thriving in the safe space between the 2 x 4s beneath the flooring. The wall was propped up with the hope of dispersing the honey makers but the result was only to attract more opportunistic free range bees to feast on the now exposed honeycombs.

In the past, we have called the monks out at the Prince of Peace monastery and brother Blaise would come out to collect the bees and add them to his honey producing hives on the grounds of the Abbey. But when I spoke to Skip at the monastery, he told me that Blaise is not well and no longer rescues the bees. Our prayers are with you, Blaise.

Bill’s wife Karen combed the internet and worked the phones and in the afternoon a young man who rescues bees for a fee came by and boxed up the hive and took them off for a new home. Some stragglers hung around for a while finishing off what honeycomb scraps were left behind but soon the air was relatively bee free and the all clear was given to resume work the following day.

The Queen, leading the rest into the box to move to a new nome