If I Could Be — PART 2

The Bee story

by Dr. Gabriella Kőrösi

Based on true events in May of 2019

One sunny Saturday afternoon in May the queen of the bees sent out bee troops to look for a new home. Their current home was getting crowded. The queen was beautiful and dark colored. She is a truly magnificent creature. The bees were going around and around scouting for a nice new place to live. The old beehive was getting too busy for them to live together comfortably.

The bees found a nice house with an orchard attached, lots of flowers for pollen. There were roses, blueberries, multiple fruit trees, bushes, and many plants they could not even count. The scouting bees thought: “this would be a nice place to live”. They decided to stay a while and check the new home out. In the beginning the bees were not as noticeable as there were only a few flying around. After hanging out for few days the bees flew around the area, checked for safety. It seemed like a nice spot to build their new home. They alerted the queen that they had found a nice new place to live. It took a while to gather the hive and get ready for the trip to the new home.

The queen together with some other bees from the old hive come to the new house to see how she liked it. She loved it. It had a nice cover, plenty of food. She decided to move in. She sent some of the bees back to the old beehive to let them know this was a great place and invite more bees to come to the new house and help build a hive. They came the next day.

In the meantime, the people who lived in the house noticed that their roof line by the back door of the house got busy with a lot of bees hanging around. It was an amazing experience. The bees were buzzing around happily. The people loved the bees and knew that bees are important because they provide pollination for flowers and plants to grow and they also make yummy honey. While having the bees was a nice idea, the bees were not in the best spot. They decided to move in between the ceiling and roof by the back door. This scared the dogs living in the house and created a problem as having honey and lots of bees in the roof lining is not the best thing for safety neither for the bees or the people living there.

The family decided to call some friends and beekeepers to find out what would be the best thing to do. How to help the bees find a new home without hurting them. A beekeeper friend named Jonena, and her husband Roger have bees on their own and know how to handle them, catch them, and keep them safe. They were able to come to the house and help them. The beekeeper looked at the bees and said that they can bring a swarm bee box for the bees to move into. They were both hoping that the bees will like the idea.

The next day Jonena and Roger brought a bee box and they placed it on top of a small building they had next to the house. This is what you can see in the picture above.

When the sun came up the next day all of a sudden, the dogs who were living in the house a retired greyhound and an Italian Maremma sheepdog, got extremely nervous and kept barking. The people living in the house went outside to investigate what had happened. The sound was the first thing she had heard. It was a very intensive humming sound.

She went out to the driveway and looked up. It was a sight she had never seen before. There were bees everywhere. Thousands and thousands of them. They covered the whole house. It was beautiful and scary at the same time.

The family in their search the family found that honeybees do not like cinnamon and moth balls. They had some cinnamon at home that they used for cooking and baking yummy things like cinnamon rolls. They decided to make a cinnamon water by mixing cinnamon and water together in a big pitcher. Once the big bee box was in place, they loaded a squirt gun that is normally used for water fight and draw up the cinnamon water in it to squirt it to the area by the roof line where the bees were. This was a fun activity. They kept squirting away until all the cinnamon water was gone from the pitcher.

They were hoping that the bees will not like the smell and move into the bee box. The bee box already had honeycomb in it with some honey. This was helpful for the bees because they do not have to work that hard to build a new honeycomb and make honey for the winter to come.

They also went to get some moth balls and place the moth balls up to the roof area to try to discourage the bees to make their home under the house roof.

Painting inspired below by the bee story created by my artist sister Dorottya Dóka. In the picture the bees are represented by the gold colored beads and the honey is by the gold color. To me it looks like golden honey is dripping down from a huge honeycomb.

The bees were extremely sensitive to the smell. They did not like the cinnamon and the moth balls. They were very unhappy. They were wondering what had happened, why this bad smell happened all of a sudden. They started to think that this home might not be the best for them.

The queen was unhappy. The bees were unhappy. In the period of about one week things were uncertain for the family and the bees. The bees were uncertain if they want to move.

The family wanted them to move so they can have a happy and healthy life that is not in their roof. A lot of rain came down during that week and the bees stayed inside. The family stayed inside. After a few nice sunny days, the family saw the bees being happy and buzzing around the bee box. The queen bee and her hive decided that they will move into their new home. It was a celebration for everyone. The bees very happy to have a new home full of honey and honeycomb that was already built.

The family was happy that the bees moved out from their house and the beekeepers were happy because they got a new beehive.

The bees now needed to get ready to be transported to their new home. Jonena and Roger came to take the bees away. Jonena’s husband put on the protective suit and got ready by taping the side of the box with blue tape so the bees will stay inside during transport. Then he got on the folding ladder, got to the top of the roof to remove the bee box. The bees inside were a little nervous. They did not know exactly what was going on. The picture below shows the removal of the swarm box with full of bees:

Jonena said that the bees were extremely large and very strong. The hive was also very strong. The bees were happy in their new home. They did not know yet that they will have to move again soon. Once the bees were packed up, they were placed in the back of a truck and moved about fifteen minutes away from their original location. The bees in their new home in the picture below:

The bees had moved into a new home and got transported into a wonderful new hillside in Astoria, Oregon. The hill has many blackberries, and the six weeks of blackberry bloom is the main source of food for the bees.

Jonena tells me that it is important for the beehive to have as much flying time during those six weeks as possible. About a week later the frames with the honeycombs are moved out of the box and another box added so the queen had even more room. Then the original swarm box that was on top of our little cabin will be ready for another hive of bees. The bees that were moved were winterized (covered, fed, and kept safe from the cold and storms) in November of 2020. Some of them can be still seen to fly around in warm days. In March we will find out how they are doing. We are hoping that they will be happy and healthy. The picture below show the bees on the Astoria hillside at their new home. The queen and her hive was very happy at their new home. They had a lot of space and yummy blackberry blossoms to gather pollen from that they will turn into honey and use to survive through the winter.

The picture above was sent to me by Jonena after the bees arrived at their new home. You can see the swarm box the bees were transported in. It has the blue tape on it. The hillside had many blackberries and the bees had used the pollen from the flowers to make honey. The bees lived happily in their new home.

I had received some new pictures from the bees making new honeycomb and fresh honey.

The bees have a wonderful life with by Jonena & Roger. They take good care of them, provide them with a safe place to live happily. I am greatly appreciative of beekeepers. Bees are essential part of our daily lives. Thank you so much for all you do. I’d also like to thank the bees for providing me with such a wonderful experience and story. GK

Part 1 of the book can be found here

DANCING ELEPHANTS PRESS

Copyright @ 2021. 1st addition. By Dr. Gabriella Kőrösi. All rights reserved.

Edited by Erika Halloran

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