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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: NAFEX List <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Honey bees
  • Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:10:47 -0600

This is a bit off-topic, but I thought it might be of interest. I live in town, and I usually see a few honey bees in my yard in the spring, but only a few. Last year, my elderly mother fell and ended up in the hospital just as my Concord grapes got ripe. So I didn't get them picked right away...

By the time I got around to picking them, they were overly ripe - still good (especially sweet, in fact), but badly split. They were also covered - thickly covered - in honey bees. I've never seen so many bees in my life! I don't know where they came from. The bees seemed to be very docile, though, when I went out to pick the grapes. I carefully reached in and grabbed each bunch of grapes (trying to avoid actually grabbing a bee), cut the stem, and lightly tossed the bunch into a plastic bin on the ground. Some of the bees just rode along the whole way.

But as I continued to pick, they seemed to become more agitated. There was more and more buzzing from the bees around me. Of course, there were fewer grapes left on the vines, too, so the bees became even more concentrated. Eventually,... I lost my nerve. I figured I'd pick the rest of them at sundown, when I expected the bees to leave.

Well, there *were* fewer bees as it started to get dark, I guess, but it was also a lot harder to see what I was doing. Pretty soon, I was going mostly by feel, and there were still a LOT of bees around. (I thought they went back to the hive at night???) And note that, a few days before, a man in Omaha had died of bee stings - from honey bees, according to the news - while mowing his lawn. So I was kind of nervous, still. Then I reached in, grabbed a bunch of grapes, and brought it out to find the biggest bee I've ever seen in my life! It looked similar to the honey bees, but about two inches long! Well, thinking about it, I suppose it wasn't quite *that* big, but it really was the biggest bee I've ever seen, no question about that. Maybe an inch and a half long? It was a veritable giant of a bee, anyway.

I set the bunch of grapes on the ground, and gently pushed the monster bee off with a stick. It didn't seem to mind. But I decided I'd had enough of picking grapes for that day. :-)

I ended up picking the rest the next day. No sign of the huge bee, and I never did get stung.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying. - Fran Lebowitz





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