And I laughed so hard it hurt.
If you don’t know my husband Brian, one thing you must know is he is not a wimp. No challenge is too great for him – a gashing wound is just a little scratch; moving a 500 lb object by himself – no problem he’ll figure out a way using a dolly; it’s only 2 degrees outside, let’s take the kids, age 3 and 5, for a walk – the cold weather is only good for them.
But when it comes to bees it is a whole different story. He will not get near a frame, and when he watched me manage the bees after the swarm by shaking and dumping them into the hive he thought I was crazy. Since he is handy and I am not, he begrudgingly puts together my equipment for me and climbs on the roof with me to take pictures of the hive when I inspect it. Open the hive or hold a frame forget it, but take pictures he can do.
One of the funniest things I have ever seen was on the day he helped me capture my first swarm. Brian was dressed for the occasion, protected with tall leather work boots, long socks pulled over his thick Carhartt pant legs, leather gloves, a long shirt, a heavy winter Carhartt work jacket, all topped off with a beekeeping hat and veil tied tightly around him. Still somehow in the chaos of the moment one little bee managed to crawl up into his veil and land on his nose.
My courageous husband started screaming and cursing, jumping about like a madman when he realized there was a bee on him. Brian tried to get the bee by repeatedly hitting it through his veil, with his glove covered hands, in effect smacking himself in the face. When that didn’t work he began running like a baby all around the yard yelling, swearing and shedding his clothes all over the lawn – a glove here, a jacket there.
“Squish it! Squish it!” I yelled doubled over in laughter. Instead he just ran out of the backyard and into the front yard disrobing, as if running away is somehow going to calm that bee down. Seeing a grown man scream and run like a baby from one little bee is a moment that will forever be etched into my mind as one of the funniest sights I have ever been privy too.
After completely removing his protective outfit, he squished the bee and despite his panicking and flailing about did not get stung. He slowly composed himself and then helped me round-up the swarm we captured. He even took it kindheartedly as I poked fun at him, all the while realizing I probably would have done the very same thing – well maybe not the very same thing.
This is a photo Brian took of my bees. The black part is foundation or black plastic coated with wax. You put that inside a wooden frame to give the bees a model to start building their own wax onto. The white hexagons are wax cells being built by the bees. Do you see the cell that has two yellow ovals in it? That is pollen that has just been deposited. Right above that cell is my new queen, the one who swarmed. She has a solid orange rear end, instead of a striped one like the worker bees.