Every time I get a swarm call, and I mean every single time, the folks making the call are certain they have honeybees that need to be rescued. Save the Bees! Also they don't want to pay for the service of removal. But that's another story.....

The problem is, about 85% of the time it isn't bees. It's wasps of various kinds. Or carpenter bees. Or even bumble bees. Usually yellow jackets. 

Honey bees are adorable. Small, cute, fuzzy. They are delicate.  If they sting you once, they die. Their stinger is attached to their hearts and it gets pulled out. Wasps on the other hand are sharp looking, have different bodies, and can sting you until they get bored or you die. Stinging doesn't kill them. They are heartless from the get go. 

How can you tell though if you don't love them like I do? 

Here's a quick guide to the common bees and one wasp. So many times I get calls for swarms and it is actually yellow jackets. They are jerks, those wasps. They can and will sting repeatedly and have no chill. Call a pest removal company, not me. I will come for actual honey bees. 

You will see that I do not wear a full suit. I still wear gloves and the veil and the white shirt though. I get too hot in a full suit, but I do wear one if I am dealing with a comb removal from a house or angry wasps. I recommend that unconfident, super allergic, and children wear full suits that are hard to get out of. 

Here's why. Last summer I was working with a newbie keeper who had committed himself to a feral colony removal. He had presented himself as experienced but chatting on the way to the location, I learned that this was his first time. He'd been keeping bees for about four weeks and had never done a removal. There are several red flags here. Newbies should always apprentice through a whole season before getting their own hives. Second, never commit yourself to a swarm removal if you have never done it. I guess that's why he asked me to tag along.  

The bees were an old colony, about 7 foot tall combs and an entire wall of a shed. Luckily the owner wanted the shed torn down, so damage was not an issue. However, this was not a swarm removal, this was a colony relocation. This hive was at least 5 years old if not more. I found 3 queen nukes and a very healthy queen. Newbie began by smoking the bees, but not enough. Then a crowbar to the top of the wall. So many things wrong here I will explain in another post. My point is, the bees riled up and swarmed him. One stung him through his improperly fitted hood right on the nose and he panicked. What did he do then? He tried to get out of his bee covered suit! If I had not been there, he would have stripped down, exposing himself to so many angry bees, possibly needing an ambulance. So, the suit must be difficult to unzip. Also never work alone.

For normal checks on easy going hives, I just like to wear the basics, but well fitted. There are some cultures that beekeeper naked! I'm not that extreme. If it is really hot, I wear a sweatband to keep my eyes from getting dripped sweat soaked and impairing my vision. I try not to work in extreme heat, usually waiting until either early morning, or dusk when it is cooler.

I found that my normal clothes are too predator like in colour. Also that the bees get stuck in my hair. My hands are too busy for their liking as well. This is the get up that prevents me from getting stung. I also usually wear boots, but closed toed comfortable shoes of any kind can work. Also, I work the back of the hives because my belly bumps out the front (three kids and post pregnancy belly fat.....) and that tends to get the bees buzzing more. 

​Recipe for Bright Tea
8 small rose hips or 2-4 large ones
1 slice of ginger or galanga
1 T of dried Spearmint
4 dried cranberries
Honey or Maple Syrup- to taste
Lemon, dried or fresh slice
almost or just boiled water (190-205 degrees F) 

I make this for my kids when they are feeling a little sick. Rose Hips are high in natural vitamin C, mint and ginger are both excellent for nausea, cranberry for flavour, and honey for anti-inflammatory healing. I plan on making up a bag for my morning sickness suffering friends too. It is a wonderful soothing, bright tea. I also drink it when the winter blues are hitting me hard. It is caffeine free, but the vitamin C really helps with energy levels. 

Wait? Do folks in the South get winter blues? We sure do y'all! It can even get cold enough here to SNOW. But the cold, overcast, greyness of the winter sky wears on us just like it does on our Northern counterparts.

I find though, so much gratitude in the warmer winter days. Just three years ago I was having buckets of feed and water to livestock in -60 windchill praying that my eyeballs wouldn't freeze into icy blind marbles. Winter in Iowa is no joke. Winter on a livestock farm is even less funny. Combine the two and it is unimaginable hell. The cows, sheep, and pigs still need food and water, sometimes 3x a day. Always 7 days a week. I totally get why some livestock is raised in sheltered, temperature controlled, confinement. Mine were open pasture and open timber raised. So THANK GOD for Savannah winters, I'll sip my Bright Tea on the wide front porch in my light sweater, sweet kick boots, and regret nothing while watching the once every 5 years snow fall, dreamlike. 

When I moved to Georgia with four beehives, three boxes of poetry books, my kids and their backpacks filled with play clothes and movies, and my own small suitcase of dresses, the hives were empty and dirty. I rough cleaned them of wax and dead bees and bagged the parts up for transport. Then they sat unused for years. At one point I took in a feral swarm but neighboring construction and the chop and burn land clearing process they used drove off the skittish colony. 

The new packages will arrive in two weeks so my daughters and I set to cleaning the boxes and popping in new frames. 

The first step was blowing off pollen and dirt and bugs that had accumulated in storage, then assessing any damage. Set boxes and frames that need repaired aside. It's basic carpentry that my ten year old can do. Post on that soon. 

The second step was washing the pieces with dish soap and water followed by a Clorox wipe,  wipe down. Air dry. Don't worry, Clorox wipes don't leave a residue that will harm these bees. 

Next was to remove the waxed up old foundations and pop in bright yellow new ones. 

The paint job is still in good shape, but basic white. Next week the boxes all get painted Polish style, bright colors with floral designs. In that post I will explain why I have chosen that approach.

​Technically, at this point the hives are ready for bees, but the paint job comes first. 

​

And now for something completely different...... 

Last night I took my children to a local Sushi place, it is our once a week outing. The waitress knows what we order and puts in in when she sees our car park. My kids eat a giant plate of friend rice, veggies, and their choice of meat. I get a green tea and a California roll. My kids are always high tension when we get there, post family therapy appointment, processing big emotions and hungry. Behavior is forgiven by the owners and staff, but I am always on edge about bothering others. Single mom life is hard. HARD. Hard in ways that is hard to describe sometimes. And my own emotional wire is also pulled taught and electrified post therapy. 

My ears perked up when I heard the elderly couple at the table next to ours complaining about a mom and badly behaved kids. Mine? I listened deeper.... They had gone to a shop early in the day and the employee had her kids there. From what I gather, one of the very young children was rude to the man, "How dare he tell me to bug off! Kids these days are so awful! And the mom refused to quiet them! Even when I told her how upsetting it was!" 

The woman replied, "We should call corporate and report her. That will show her." 

Tingles when up my spine. I tried to focus on my own kids and their behavior, one girl picking on the other, my youngest asking over and over about Captain Underpants. I kept looking at the couple though and their friends. Very well dressed, manicured, conversation turned to Country Club gossip after the decision was made to call corporate on this minimum wage mom who offended them, or rather, whose child had. 

I couldn't say anything. That would be rude. To call people out, strangers at that, in public is rude.  
And I am always exhausted. I couldn't muster the energy to make a scene. 

But....here's what I want to say to them: 

If a person, a mom usually, has her children at work with her? Something in her life has gone sideways. Her regular childcare quit, is hospitalized or ill,  she has no backups, or she is otherwise in crisis. Sideways. And sideways is never a good situation. Her kids are going to know they are a complicating factor but she can't afford not to go to work. She's lucky enough to have an understanding boss. But her kids are going to be riled up with the change of routine and crisis. 

You know what 100% will not help this situation? Getting her fired. 

Please don't do that. I've been there, sneaking my kids in the backdoor and blending them in with students in my college classroom, with headphones and a dvd and coloring books. My campus doesn't allow children on site. But I can't miss class. I can't miss a paycheck. I can't risk leaving them unsupervised at home either. What, wealthy elderly couple do you think she should have done? Sell off some her artwork and eat cake? 

Please consider doing the following instead: 

Say, "I bet you are having a bad day, I hope it gets better." 
Send her a card that says something hopeful. Include a grocery gift card. 
Pray for her. 
Fill out a positive feedback form for her. I don't care if your experience was awful. She was probably trying hard. 

I can tell you she has probably been bone tired, driving by your gated neighborhood, crying in her car because motherhood is hard, doing it on your own is harder, and working working working. Kindness is free, y'all. Kindness is free. And it takes a thousand flowers and a thousand bees to make a spoon of honey. They work together to survive.