NOT THE BEES!!!

So, I understand the irony of posting this right after "Chiller Bees" but because of my limited internet access this is just the way things ended up. I was saving this post for when I got stung but the events of this past Friday screamed "NOT THE BEES!" almost as ferociously as Nicolas Cage does.

So here goes the events of this past Friday the 13th:

Erin and I wake up to just another normal day. At breakfast we ask Kwao what is on the agenda and he tells us that he wants to go take down the hive in a tree next door. Cool. Sounds like a plan. We get all our gear ready and walk to Strawberry Fields Together, ready to take down the hive. Since the hive is high up in a termite's nest in a tree, Desmond brings his chainsaw. After some discussion it is decided that the best course of action is to simply cut the tree down, let it fall over the gully, and work from there. Good. Solid plan. So we all watch as Desmond goes to work...

Unfortunately, I stopped taking the video at exactly the wrong moment. Literally seconds after the video ends, the bees started making their way across the gully towards us. No one had geared up yet so we started backing away carefully to let the bees calm down. All of a sudden everyone is running. I hear Emmanuel's frantic cries, "the bees! the bees!" Erin, calmly running beside me informs me, "shit, I think there are bees stuck in my hair." We stop to get the bees out of Erin's hair but unfortunately, she gets stung anyway. Now, I hear bees buzzing all around me and I realize they have caught up to us and are now in my hair. So there Erin and I are, running away from the hive whipping our hair back and forth like no others. Now we are far enough that we begin to slow down, laughing hysterically at our circumstances when Emmanuel sprints towards us crying that there are bees in his hair! We stop to untangle the two bees from his dreadlocks before continuing our journey home. Miraculously, I did not get stung at all! We chilled at home for ten minutes or so before returning to the hive to find Tom. Tom stayed the entire time and only got stung once. After all that excitement, though, it was time to get to work. The rest of the day was less exciting, thankfully. We tied the comb to our frames, found the queen, and wached as the bees filed into their new home.

Desmond's bee outfit after the chase

 The hive

The queen! She is the one with the big butt. No joke. We put her in a queen cage to make sure she was in the hive and that the rest of the bees would follow. We let her out once the bees got settled.

The bees entering their new home