MAGPIE'S MUMBLINGS

A blog about my interests, which include fabric landscapes and various and assorted other artsy pursuits and sometimes known to contain mumblings of a random nature.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Attacked!!!!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon about 4 o'clock we looked out our front window to see this: Thousands of bees swarming around. This picture only shows a very small portion of what we were seeing. After about an hour they all settled into our walnut tree and formed a solid mass about two feet long and a foot wide.
It's now Monday...3 p.m. .....and they're still there. Umm...help?
Updated to say: No, no...we wouldn't KILL them...no way!! B'sides, as of about 4:30 this afternoon, they took off in a hurry, heading east. Jack heard them from the garage and came out to see what all the noise was & saw them go.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:34 PM

    Did you call a bee keeper? Maybe you should start out on your own.
    Mrs Noofy

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  2. Anonymous3:50 PM

    Two suggestions:
    1.stop rolling around the backyard naked and convered in honey
    2. try hitting the hive with a big stick to scare them all away.
    other than that ive got nothing.

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  3. no ideas.... sounds like a new colony is planning to use your tree as a hive. I know bees are less active after dark, and you can buy a spray to kill them, but wihtout bee equipment I wouldn't be out there personally....

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  4. Good luck. I think I heard somewhere that bees bring good fortune. They are a lovely species - please don't kill them. Please.

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  5. Anonymous5:43 PM

    We had that happen in Reno. Fortunately our neighbor behind us was a beekeeper. Of course they were his bees. When the number of bees outgrows the hive they swarm and find a new queen. They may leave on their own in a few days but calling someone who keeps bees would solve the problem They would probably come out and take them off your tree (hands).

    sus in spokane

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  6. Yep call a beekeeper--you probably have someone near you who is missing some bees.
    I wouldn't go near them that's for sure.

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  7. WOW! Holy Bee Tree, Batmat! Here's hoping they find a new home, other than your tree, I mean :)

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  8. Ooh! Ooh! I can answer this dilemma with the information I learned from a Nova documentary!

    It's a new colony that has broken off from another one, with a new queen. They're traveling to find a place to start building their new hive, and when they're all clumped together like that, it's because they're resting, and in the very center of that giant lump is the queen, being faithfully protected by all of the worker bees, which are all female, by the way. (Male drones don't have wings and tend to be pushed out of the hive to starve and freeze to death every winter.)

    The fact that they flew away meant that your tree was not adequate for their use, or was just a pit stop.

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  9. amazing!!!!!
    i like the info left in your comments about them-just bee glad that you weren't outside!!!!
    glad to know you let them bee :)
    enjoy your day
    tabby
    www.crookedheartart.blogspot.com

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