Bees, Bees and More Bees!

 OMG!!!! You guys... come look!! You're not going to believe this...

Do you see??? That lump on the tree??

How about now??? 

No, eh? OK... let me send in my trusty film crew...

How about now?? Yes!!! All over that tree branch... and those specks in the air...

They are bees!!!! Yes... bees! We were sitting on the deck and all of a sudden there was a huge cloud of flying insects. And we could near the hum of them... then they started to gather on the tree branch. Can you see? All those specks against the sky are bees...

We did a video... you can hear them!

They are doing a bee swarm! This is when the hive gets too crowded. The bees start some new queens and when they are ready to hatch, the old queen leaves the nest with about hive the other bees.

They can fly up to a mile and then land on a convenient spot (like our tree branch). Most of the bees huddle around the queen to keep her cool. While a bunch of scouts head out to find a new hive location.

The scouts come back and report on their spot and then other scouts go and check out that spot to see if they think it's a good spot too... this can take a few hours or a few days.

I should mention at this point, that the bees aren't dangerous. Our friendly Winnipeg beekeeper friend said we could stick our paw in there and they would do nothing. Cause they're not defending honey or a hive... Although if we went digging for the queen, I'm sure things would get nasty...

We debated calling a local beekeeper (it was a Sunday) but I voted on leaving the bees alone because... maybe they'll choose our yard and then we'd have a honey hive that I could call all my own!

Every bee needs a local honey hive, dontcha think?

This is soooo cool!

The bees do a little waggle dance when they fly back and somehow that communicates to the other bees where the possible new home is, how big it is, and all sorts of other stuff... fascinating...

The hive mind is a strange and wonderful thing...

I do have to say, we've made our garden beary bee friendly... with lots of different flowers...

And lots of foxglove and lavender because they love those!

After a few hours... we heard the bees taking off and this swirling cloud slowly moved over the house and across the street (sigh...)... bye!!! I tried to run after them but... too many houses in the way... maybe one day we'll be chosen for a honey hive!