The swarm, the new hive, the risk

Once someone finds out you are a beekeeper, its one of those things that they don't forget! I had 3 calls this week re: swarms of bees in trees, bushes and the walls of peoples houses. Today I went to an apartment complex to remove a swarm of bees scaring their tenants. I slowly cut, branch by branch, dropping clumps of bees into a box as the residents looked and screamed and gave their little bits of information that they thought they knew about the honeybee. It was great fun acting braver than any of them and correcting most of their knowledge about the honeybee...I felt like I was at a State Fair demonstration, the only thing missing was cotton candy.

A mature hive will think about swarming in the Spring when they detect that their hive is getting crowded or that the existing queen is weak. They will then produce another queen who will fight for the number one position with the old queen or any new queens developed at this time. If she doesn't fight she will take a flight and 30 to 70 percent of the hive will follow her. Get this: When the new queen is ready to come out of her cell she actually makes a loud noise; well, loud for bees! Its as if she screams out a war cry to get everyone ready for the flight or the fight!

Swarming is Gods way of letting a hive grow bigger, but I also think that its His way of helping beekeepers get more bees! After I got the big clump of the bees in my box I waited to see what the bees would do. Sure enough, after some convincing from me they all crawled into my cardboard box, I shut the cover and put it in my van. From an onlooker it probably looked like someone trying to capture a mini tornado in a box. The bees desire to stay in the box gave me a pretty good indication that the queen was in there also. Nothing compares to the feeling of having a live box of bees in your vehicle, hearing their loud buzzing and knowing that if they wanted to, hundreds of them could easily slip out of the hole in the top of my box and sting me many many times!! I got them home safely and decide that it was time to have a hive in my back yard, so I prepared my empty hive, smoked the bees to keep them calm and dumped them in. Today they are buzzing like crazy...I think I did it!!

As I watched the bees dance around the hive it reminded me of something that I had found out about myself while in counseling. I am a risk taker by nature. I love risk, the problem is that many of my former risks had been unhealthy (its a wonder I am not dead and its pretty wonderful that I still have all my appendages intact!) I reminded myself of what I tell people when they ask "why beekeeping?" "I don't do drugs, my wife won't let me risk jumping out of a plane until my children are grown and she knows my life insurance is up to date...beekeeping is the best risk I could think of..." Those buzzing bees are a gentle (unless Im getting stung!) reminder that God did not create me as a man to sit and watch T.V. all day. God called me to take risks for Him. The risks He wants can be much more difficult than jumping out of a plane. What about the risk of being looked at as simple or stupid for believing in a God bigger than myself, the risk of failing when trying to accomplish something great for Him, the risk of rejection. Sometimes I will get stung in the process but healthy risk doesn't just end with the event, it always leads to a better thing...today that better thing is the honey that Im dreaming about in the fall! I encourage you to get up and take a risk today that could change the world...AND make you smile!