Listening to sound of b

August 23, 2010 Warm Humid 6:12 pm

“Close your eyes. Listen to the sound of the bees”, I said to my mom.

If anyone had seen us I think they would have thought that we had been attacked by a swarm of mad bees. Instead it was just me and my mom, in our full bee suits, just stretched out in the grass. I thought it would be cool to lie down right in front of the front door of the hive and watch them. In a way become part of their colony for a few minutes. It was hard at first to be still and to just listen to the sound of the hives. Every now and then a guard bee would bump up against my veil just making sure I wasn’t an intruder.

The sound of the hive was so soothing. I have heard that the note that bees “hum” or “buzz” is b. Of course it’s b. Today it was a calm soothing b. Not an angry b, or an impatient b, just a comfortable soothing b. The hive also smelled so good. It smelled of a combination of honey, wax and propolis (which is basically sap). I actually would love to be able to bottle that smell and have it in my room.

“Oh, cr*p”, said my mom

It was the first thing either of us had said for several minutes so I was totally surprised to hear my mom yell out “cr*p”( she doesn't usually say that)

“I have a bee in my suit. She is in my armpit!”

“Just be calm and try to gently let her out” I said to my mom calmly, hoping that if I were totally calm she would be too. Bees can tell when you are alarmed, and they react to it with a sting.

Luckily my mom was pretty chill and didn’t freak out. She just rolled over, unzipped her suit and scooped the little bee on out. Nice job mom.

After about 10 minutes neither of us wanted to get up. We weren’t talking we were just listening, smelling and watching the bees. The bees are really active at this time of day because they are returning from their foraging flights and heading home for the day. It was a traffic jam as they entered the hive. We just stayed there and watched the whole thing and after a while the bees didn't mind us anymore. We weren't a threat, we were just part of their ecosystem.

Imagine walking along and coming across two people in full white bee suits (they kind of look like HazMat suits) lying down in the grass, not talking to each other, right next to three beehives. I guess our family definition of normal is a little different than others. Thank goodness.