By Will Campbell –
July 14, 2010Posted in: ICME, Science, Seasonal
A few weeks ago I alerted our next-door neighbor that what had started off as a few bees had blossomed in short notice into a small colony that had been busy under a roof eave making his house their home. I told him I don’t have a problem with them but that if he did an option would be to call Backwards Beekeepers to remove and rescue them rather than have them exterminated by some heartless giant-mallet-wielding pest control company.
In the weeks since the neighbor has opted to let the bees be bees, which is totally awesome — especially since my little backyard patch of Great Sunflower Project sunflowers will be blooming any day now. And extraspecially that the hive — now huge compared to its humble beginnings — has basically come outside for reasons unknown to me (the heat, maybe?) to literally hang out in a giant writhing mass of honeybee orgyfication, a wall-to-wall portion of which you see above (click here to view emBEEgified version) who didn’t mind at all that I got my camera all up in their beeswax.
Related posts:
- San Marino Home Infested with Honey-Making Bees
- Abuzz at The Hive
- David Gough At The Hive
- Covered in Bees!
- I have bees, hundreds of bees
About the Author
Will Campbell arrived in Los Angeles via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in the sixty-fourth year of the previous century and has never lived anywhere else, which makes him two things: middle-aged and a native. He can count 16 residences over the course of his nomadic existence as a latchkey kid and deadbolt adult and presently he resides in Silver Lake with his wife
Susan, their four cats, three treefrogs, two dogs, and a Russian tortoise named Buster. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). For better or worse, the pinnacle of his online success arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was chosen "Best Website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue (in large part no doubt because he shrewdly avoided using blinking text which was all the Web 1.0 rage back then). He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous; is an alternate transportation proponent, a horrible golf player and an OK tennis player. His prefered mode of civic travel is a bike, and he loves all creatures great and small -- especially the ones people can't stand like coyotes, and opossums and spiders and potato bugs. As a rule he carries a camera with him pretty much everywhere he goes.
Oh yeah -- And when he was a leeeetle boy he thought he was related to his idol, Dodgers pitching legend Sandy Koufax because they were both southpaws. Secretly he still wishes it were true. He can be found on Twitter via: @wildbell. His email addy is wildbellatgmaildotcom.
bees scare the F out of me. iunno why.
I had a swarm that had taken up residence in an unused bbq…turns out it was the perfect size and had a vented opening, just like regular hives. I liked them but a neighbor was afraid of them so I contacted someone through the Beekeepers Assn (this was before blogs with good info). He came and took the bbq (easier that way) and said he got two entire colonies out of it–but the honey wasn’t usable as it tasted very very smokey.
Given all the problems with honeybees these days, and also how much we need them in our lives, I’m glad your neighbor let them stay (he might consider moving them in the cooler weather or the hive could just keep growing) and thanks to you for letting us see the busy bees.
I’m with Sinosoul on this one. Bees scare the bee-jeezus out of me <– ha ha!!
Sinosoul and Queequeg, what I hope is far more frightening to you than bees themselves is the risks involved if the massive die-offs that have been occurring continue. To echo Lynda, as a species we rely on these creatures for so much of the food we eat so I hope that the fears you have are at least tempered by a respect for how important they are to our well-being.
Oh yah, I absolutely support saving bees. I just throw my support in from a distance. Far off distance.
I love bees!!! And I love that your neighbor is letting them do their beezness a natural! We need them!!!!!