I have heard from a lot of friends and family that they miss my daily blogs. I don’t think anyone is interested in my normal boring day-to-day life, but will try to add a blog at least once a week or so. Or, if something exciting or different happens like today!

Yesterday, I went to the Mariners Opening Day Game with my friend, Yvonne Wake. We have been going for many years and it is always exciting. The Mariners won, so that made it even better.

Tonight, I was just getting ready to leave for a meeting at the club and saw a bee swarm in the apple tree in the back yard. This is the time of year when bees swarm. There are several reasons why bees swarm but basically it is because the hive is crowded and they have produced a new queen. We all know you can’t have two queens, so off they go.

These went to the apple tree in the back yard. Darrel originally got into keeping bees a few years back when we came home and found a large swarm in one of the apple trees in the front yard!

This was the first big test of Courtney (and me) at bee keeping. We had to put together a new hive box from the mess in the garage. Then Courtney suited up and stole some brood and honey from our other hives.

Once he had the hive ready we set up two ladders under the tree with the hive box on one. Courtney climbed up the other ladder and knocked the swarm off the branch into the hive box.

We then ran for cover since the bees were buzzing around like crazy. Typically, they are pretty mellow when swarming since they gorge themselves on honey prior to leaving their hive. We didn’t want to take any chances.

We weren’t sure if the queen was in the hive box or still on the branch where there will still quite a few bees. We waited and watched for a while and eventually all the bees were gone from the branch. It was also getting cooler and bees tend to go to ‘bed’ as it gets cooler.

Courtney went back out to move the hive up to the bee yard. I heard an ‘aarggh’ and he came running in without his shirt. He hadn’t put the bee suit on since it was getting dark and was cool and he expected the bees to be calm. Well, one nailed him just under the eye and he has developed a bit of a reaction to stings the last year or so!

I put an ice pack together and gave him some ibuprofen and allergy medicine. Hope he doesn’t swell too much!