We have some pretty interesting neighbors here in our January neighborhood! I’ve already introduced you to our local alligator –
Now, I’ve seen him sunning in different spots, but to be honest, I have never actually seen him move. So I just check to see where he’s lounging each morning, and then go on with my day! No harm, no foul.
These guys are also frequent visitors-
and I always enjoy watching those long-legged Sandhill Cranes walking regally through the yard!
Also in the pond are two otters – which have been fun to watch – though they’re a little tricky to photograph. Maybe one day…
But there is another close-by neighbor that has sparked some interest.
See that little red flag circled in this picture?
Right above that, hanging from a limb and protected from view
is this –
?
Honeybees!!
Now they haven’t bothered us (we don’t walk back there often), but the school folks thought it was a good idea to re-home them to a less populated area!
So this past week a local “Bee Guy” came, assessed the situation, and took down the hive!
First, he waited for more of them to come home for the evening
then he set up his ladder
and got to work!
(I’ll be honest, this isn’t the most exciting video out there, (and I shortened it from its original 10 minutes!) but I found it very interesting to watch as the bees were buzzing all around him!)
After he scraped the bees off of each section into the box, he would drop the sections to the ground. After all the hive sections were down, he took any of the sections that still had ‘baby bees’ on them and put them into frames in a second box. And then he gave me a little piece of the honeycomb that actually had honey in it!
(again – dark, grainy video – sorry!)
He also gave me several other pieces of the honeycomb that I was able to pass on to the school for their science classes!
Since not everyone was home when the condo was taken down, there are still some pretty confused bees buzzing around, wondering what happened to their home. Thankfully they are confused but not aggressive – especially helpful when Gary was taking care of the tanks yesterday! And hopefully, they’ll find their way to their new location soon (instead of rebuilding!).
Guess I better get buzzing on some weekend chores around here! Thanks for stopping by!
PS – if you find bees as fascinating as I do, there are lots of bee videos over on YouTube. I checked out a few and found this one (geared for kids, but still very well done!).