Sunday, April 15, 2012

A Bee-lievable Story.

Today, I had a random moment while outside watching Jeff build the boxes for our raised garden. Jazz, our big black dog snaps at bugs while out in the yard. Sometimes she does it so hard you can hear her teeth snap together. As she laid on the deck, a bee flew by her and she of course started chasing it and trying to bite it. The bee just sort of hovered over the table like it was waiting on something..or looking for something and that's when it hit me. I'd bought geraniums (they repel mosquitoes) last week and moved them inside on some cold nights to avoid frost. I'd forgotten to put them back out. Oops. So, I brought them back out to put them on the table and as soon as the bee saw them, he flew away. I thought it was a little odd that he didn't go right for the flowers but I said goodbye to Jeff since he was headed out for more supplies and went about my business of putting dirt in some pots for my vegetable seeds.

A few minutes later, he came back and flew over the flowers..like he was doing recon or something..and then he left again. Upon his next return..he had a couple of friends. They all just hovered there..watching me. I was right next to the flowers.  I realized what time it was and that I had to get ready for work, so I went in but stayed just a moment to watch the bees. All 3 of them just hovered a few minutes and then landed, hopping from one flower to the next. I couldn't help but giggle. In my mind, I pictured the first bee bragging to his friends about the flowers only to show up and they're not there. He panics..flying all over the place to make sure this is where they'd been. They'll think he's a liar if he doesn't produce the flowers he promised. What if they kick him out of the hive? Then, there they are..as if they'd come out of thin air. He's not sure he believes it, so he does some low fly-bys. Yep..they're real..time to go get the gang. His friends are pleased. Dinner is served..if only the human would leave so they can eat in peace. =)

I love bees. Wait. I love HONEY bees. They're so important. Sweat bees can go to hell. So can hornets, mosquitoes and wasps. I've seen videos of 2 wasps completely destroying an entire hive of bees. =( So sad. Speaking of wasps, we have carpenter wasps at the house. They've dug a fairly deep hole in the wood on our shed. There's another hole in the fence and yet another one on the side porch. I hate them. Bees have a purpose. Do wasps?? I mean an important one. Their purpose cannot be to annoy people. I realize there's a food chain..but would the world really fall apart without wasps? Or mosquitoes? Maybe their only purpose is to feed bats...in which case, we need to start protecting more of them. There's a few at our house. Maybe we can take the wood scraps from our garden frame and build a bat house. Maybe that way the crows won't eat them. I've seen that happen..it really surprised me. The crows went after this tiny bat that was just squealing and they ripped it apart in mid air and devoured it. That happened in broad daylight. Little bat should've never left his cave. =(

Anyway, the flowers are in bloom, the bees are busy and we have apple trees to plant. I'm so excited to try my hand at gardening and I look forward to bountiful crops and my little bee friend bringing more of his friends around. Just so long as Jazz is too slow to catch them.