For The Queen

A few days ago Steve called me into the backyard. I thought he wanted me to admire his new "misters" he set up on the patio cover. Instead, he wanted me to see the massive swarm of bees (honey, not Africanized) in our backyard. Fortunately they were out in the distance of our yard, but there were plenty of them that we could hear the buzzing and we knew to keep the dogs inside. It looked like they had started to build a hive on one of the olive trees, so I reached for the phone book and called about 5 or 6 pest control companies. No one answered so I left messages. Meanwhile, Steve had set up a hose with a high-pressured nozzle to blast the bees and hive to oblivion. I watched him turn it on, drop it in the grass and run away as fast as his once-soccer-player-legs could get him out of there. No luck with that.

Soon the pest guys started calling back. They all told me that it was a "transitional" hive, meaning that in 2-3 days they would be gone. Apparently as the weather warms up, a bunch of male bees escort a queen who has left a previous colony in search for a new home of her own. So this mass of bees hanging from the olive tree were all males, surrounding one queen... somewhere in there.
The next morning, not one bee was flying around. They were resting quietly.

By 20 hours later, the swarm had left, on it's own. Thank goodness!