My Roommates Are Gone

A few weeks back, I wrote about the fact that I discovered I had a bee hive in the wall of my home, and that I had decided I was just going to enjoy my new roommates for a while. I wasn't in a hurry, because the hive was behind the shower wall in my guest bathroom and everyone I talked to said the shower surround would probably have to be torn out to get to the hive. That was a very unsettling and very expensive proposition. Remodeling the bathroom was not in my budget so I decided to just enjoy the bees . . . but my plan was thwarted a few weeks ago, when word got out in the neighborhood rat community that I had honey in my walls. The rats have one heck of a communication system because in a matter of days, it seems that every rat in San Jose was running through the walls of my house.

I spent hours on the phone, trying to find someone to patch up the rat-access points. I had a real sense of urgency now, not only because I did not want to have rats in my house, but I didn't want anything to happen to the bees, but everyone told me I needed to get the bees and honey out of there first. I turned my attention to finding a bee person and I was shocked by how many people wanted to kill the bees, claiming it was the only way to do it.

I was so thankful when I got in touch with Braulio Medina, from Smiling Bee. I knew immediately that he was the person I was going to work with. He is a 3rd generation bee keeper, who has a real love and respect for bees. Not only does he know everything there is to know about bees but he also really cares about his customers. He spent almost two hours here, trying to assess the size of the hive and figure out how he could remove it, without forcing me to re-model the shower in my guest bathroom. I got such a good feeling from him and I knew the bees and I would be in good hands.

He's been here all weekend, saving the bees and trying to remove all the honeycomb, while attempting to do all that work without making a hole in any of my walls. It's been a fascinating experience for me and I have learned a lot about bees in the last few days. Did you know that worker bees only live an average of 35-40 days . . . while a Queen can live up to five years? Braulio kind of reminds me of Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer). He has a calm confidence about him when he's working with the bees and the bees respond accordingly. He was kind enough to educate me about what he was doing along the way. At one point yesterday, he had me come out to see the honeycomb he had pulled out. When I asked him if that was all of it, he told me that it was only ONE QUARTER of the honeycomb. I was shocked. Those bees have been BUSY. He asked if I wanted to stay there while he found the Queen, so I could see what she looked like, but after about ten minutes of standing there, with a hundred bees flying all around us, I started to lose my "calm confidence" and decided that it would be ok if I didn't see the Queen in person, and I went back inside the house. :-)

Later, Braulio asked me if I would like to try some of the honey. I of course said, "Yes!" It was the best honey I have ever tasted. Sweet and pure. It made the store bought honey in my cupboard seem incredibly inferior. It blows me away that bees can create something so amazing, all on their own. He gave me several pieces of honeycomb and I took a picture. When he came back today to try to reach an area he couldn't access yesterday, he found even more honeycomb back there, so now it's looking like the big section of honeycomb I saw and photographed yesterday was only ONE-FIFTH of what was up there in my wall. He was so sweet, he gave me even more honeycomb today.

While it was fun having the bees around, I know they are better off where Braulio has relocated them. (They will eventually get to go to his almond farm.) I joked around with him yesterday, asking if he would ensure they got the best home, with the best accommodations. He assured me they would. :-)

One final interesting tidbit . . . when I asked him how long it would take for the bees to make that much honey, he said "About a year." It was a year ago that Lucky passed away and interestingly enough, Lucky loved eating bees. She ate hundred of them in the years we were together, so I find it oddly poetic that bees set up house in my wall about the same time she left me. I don't know if the bees just didn't want me to be lonely, or if they were getting even with me for letting her eat so many bees over the years. Not that I had much choice, she could find and eat a bee before I even noticed one was around. She was quick!

What's important to me though, is that the bees have been saved and thanks to Braulio's determination and care, I don't have any major wall repairs to contend with. Now if I can just make sure all the neighborhood rats know the "restaurant in my wall" has been closed, I'll be in good shape!