My new roommates

Sometime this summer, I went upstairs to clean the guest bathroom, because I was having some company that night. While I was up there, I kept hearing this strange sound. It sounded kind of like water sprinklers. I peeked out the window to make sure the sprinklers weren't actually on and when I confirmed they weren't, I checked all the water sources in the bathroom, to make sure there weren't any leaks. I came up empty and promptly forgot about it.

About three weeks later, I was having company again, so I went back up to the guest bath to clean it. As soon as I got in there, I heard that strange sound again. It still sounded like sprinklers were on and I wondered if maybe I had a water leak in the wall somewhere. I got on the computer to check my recent water bills, to see if there had been any increase and there wasn't. I was stumped so I made a mental note to ask one of my friends to listen and see if they could identify the sound.

Given that I have a lot going on in my life, I once again forgot about the sound. That was, until a few weeks ago, when I was out on the side of the house doing some yard work. I happened to look up and saw a ton of bees flying around. I watched them a little more closely and realized they were flying in and out of the wall of my house, up on the second story. It took me a minute or two to put it all together. They were flying into the part of the house that is right where my guest bathroom is. Finally, the noise I had been hearing up there made sense. It wasn't sprinklers I was hearing, it was BEES! And now I knew why I had been finding so many bees in the house this summer. They were obviously trying to make their way to the hive and didn't realize the "approved access point" was outside, not inside my house.

I got on the internet and started researching bee hives in walls. I knew I needed to find someone who could come and retrieve the bees and as I was learning from my research, I was also going to need to find someone to repair the large hole in the wall that they were going to need to make to get the honeycomb out. I found a local guy who called himself the "Bee Guy" and gave him a call. He informed me that he would kill the bees and then he had a guy who could cut open the wall, remove the honeycomb and then repair the wall. That was not going to be an option for me. There was no way I was going to let someone kill the bees, especially when the bee population is as compromised as it is right now.

I kept searching, kept reading, kept making calls and sending emails. I finally found a guy, who also called himself a "Bee guy," who assured me the bees could be removed safely. He sounded more like a real Bee Guy to me. We emailed back and forth a few times, as I attempted to gather as much information as I could. Apparently, if I wait until mid-winter, it will be cheaper to remove the bees, because most of them will have moved on by then, but if I wait that long, the honeycomb could get even larger, which means the hole they'd need to make in my wall will be even larger and it will probably cost more to repair the wall afterwards. I couldn't get a definitive answer about costs, or how large the hole would need to be and on some level, I was starting to become mentally paralyzed from all the information I was collecting. I let the whole issue slide to the bottom of my to-do list, as other things took precedent.

The other morning, I got up and found a bee, barely alive, laying on the rug by the back door. I felt so bad that I hadn't noticed him in the house before I went to bed and I wanted to try to help him. I scooped him up with a piece of paper and brought him into the backyard. He was barely moving and it made me sad. I decided to try and give him Reiki. I had never given Reiki to a bee before, but I figured it was worth a try. I sat down on the ground, cupped my hands over him and started to send him Reiki. I felt a little silly, sitting there on the ground in my PJ's, trying to heal the bee, but at the same time, it just felt like the right thing to do. After about 5 minutes, he started to move around a little bit and I was excited. I decided to go back inside and make my coffee and resume my morning routine.

After I drank some coffee and looked at the paper, I went in the backyard to check on my bee friend again. He hadn't moved from where he was, and he looked like maybe he was going to make it after all. Not one to be deterred, I sat down on the ground, cupped my hands over him again and sent him some more Reiki. After about 5 minutes, he started to move around again, this time, with much more enthusiasm. I was delighted. I got a piece of paper, gently scooped him up and placed him on one of the flowers in my yard. He seemed to like that and became even more animated. I knew my little friend was going to be ok.

Smiling, I went back into the house, feeling happy to know that Reiki works on bees too, and feeling less concerned about the bee hive in my wall. I still don't know what I am going to do. I know I'll eventually need to get a real Bee Guy to come and save the remaining bees, and deal with the honeycomb and wall repair, but for the time being, I have decided to just think of the bees as my new roommates.