Yesterday I decided to try something new at work. I get so tired of sitting at my desk all day that instead of sitting in the lounge during my lunch break, I went for a walk around the campus. (I ate my sandwich sitting at my desk prior to that). It was a beautiful day and a walk seemed like just the thing. As I blogged last year, one of our science teachers got a grant to establish a honeybee colony for our school. It's been doing really well....so well, in fact, that the colony is growing by leaps and bounds. When I walked past the hives, I noticed a loud buzzing over my head up in the limbs of a pine tree. I looked up and saw a huge cloud of bees buzzing around up there. I don't know much about beekeeping, but I did know that that seemed odd. After lunch I saw the science teacher and told her what I had seen. She immediately said, "Oh no! They're swarming!" and after asking me exactly where I had seen them, she rushed outside. I didn't think too much about it after that.
When I got to work this morning, there was a carton with 18 fresh eggs on my desk for me. Sometimes I buy eggs from Mrs. Howard (the beekeeper) so I emailed her to ask her how much I owed her for them. She replied, "Not a dime. You saved the day yesterday. If you hadn't noticed the swarm and let me know we would have lost half the colony. I was able to call in another beekeeper friend of mine and we caught them and have started another box to accommodate the separate group!" Later she emailed me pictures of the swarm up in the branches of the pine tree and the friends in their gear who helped capture them. When I saw her later on in the day I thanked her for the eggs and she said it was "the very least I could do in return for you saving the bees"!
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| Omelets for dinner tonight! |
Good thing I decided to go for a walk yesterday!
Walks are not only good for yourself, but even for others :-) Lovely story, and I bet those eggs are delicious, laid by happy hens.
ReplyDeleteThey are delicious! We had wonderful omelets for dinner last night!
Deleteoh my! super jen saved the day!
ReplyDeleteIt was just a lucky coincidence!
DeleteYour egg box arrangement looks as though it contains a message. I may have to try and crack the code... 'crack' the code... oh never mind.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't think of a good response to this comment, but I did enjoy it!
DeleteWhat a fortunate case of serendipity! Those eggs are lovely.
ReplyDeleteI thought about you and your hens!
DeleteIt was either serendipitous or Karma, but either way it was good.
ReplyDeleteYes, a very serendipitous thing!; (I love that word!)
DeleteWhat an interesting story! Glad you saved the day!
ReplyDeleteThere's never a dull moment at my job!
DeleteWe have had two swarms (different times) on my Citrus trees. I have always called the Bee Keepers to come collect them. He has land to let them start a new hive. They will follow the Queen.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice way to spend your lunch time.
cheers, parsnip
That's great! I love hearing stories about bees thriving. We need them so urgently.
DeleteI once helped a friend locate a beekeeper to capture a swarm of honeybees in a tree in her yard. Another happy beekeeper.
ReplyDeleteThat's great! Beekeeping is so interesting!
DeleteJennifer you did a great thing. Once the hive splits like that you aveto act right away. This post just made my day as I am so concerned with the future of honey bees. I have Ave several small mason bee boxes and one new one that will house quite a few. I would really love to have a regular honey bee hive but this city really limits the inner city gardener.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised to hear that Portland has so many limits on urban gardening! It seems like a place that should be super amenable to that sort of thing!
DeleteWhat a beautiful box of eggs. Lucky you.
ReplyDeleteThey taste wonderful! So fresh!
DeleteWow. Exciting and fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that it was such a big deal, and glad I had decided to mention it.
DeleteHow cool is that!? And those eggs are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's so many of them!
DeleteYou are a heroine! I love the fact that each egg looks different. You should make a walk around the campus part of your weekly routine. Maybe not every day but regularly. This may enable other heroic acts.
ReplyDeleteI've gone out and walked twice this week so far. I may try to get in another day or two before the weekend gets here!
DeleteVery exciting, and so interesting about the swarming. If you hadn't gone outside for a walk over your lunch break, who knows what might have happened! And those eggs are quite the beautiful reward.
ReplyDeleteIt happened the very first day I decided to go out and walk...how lucky was that? I think the swarm would have found a new home if a few more hours had gone by. Apparently time was of the essence!
DeleteWow! Bravo for saving the day! I wouldn't have known what all those swarming bees meant. Meanwhile, you have a lot of omelets! It's great to hear that bees are doing well somewhere, since usually we just hear dire news about them.
ReplyDeleteYes, honeybees are in trouble and I'm so happy that we have a healthy colony of them at our school. They need all the help they can get!
DeleteI miss my hens
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll have new ones someday. Maybe not right now, but someday.
DeleteOne time a swarm left my dad's hive and went into the next door neighbour's yard scouting for a good location. The neighbour reported dad for "sending bees to attack"
ReplyDeleteYour walk turned out to be just what was needed, a change of scene for you and you helped save the bees by telling the beekeeper. Those eggs she gave you are such lovely hues.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely inspiring story!
ReplyDelete