Happy chance, serendipity, luck call it what you might it never ceases to amaze me. In the past month I experienced a convergence of events that was truly serendipitous. A couple of weeks ago while out in my yard removing shoots from under the apricot tree, I noticed the presence of an unusually large number of bees. First, one or two, that’s normal; then  seven or eight, that’s quite a few; then, I became aware of a steady buzzing sound which originated over my head! A bee colony had taken up residence in our apricot tree!

The seeming randomness and chaos of their movements is mesmerizing. I kept thinking of The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and this advice regarding “…’bee yard etiquette’. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don’t be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don’t swat. Don’t even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”

I love the little pollinators when they are at work doing what they do to the flowers and fruit trees in the yard. It is a good year for our apricot tree. We have a bumper crop and I know it is due, in a large part to those bees; however, I am not sure I want to have to deal with such a large number of bees at once.

Now to the serendipity, about three weeks prior to the appearance of the hive my husband   ran into a friend from years ago who we hadn’t seen in a very long time. She shared that her family was keeping bees and gave him a jar of honey.  After marveling at the hive and taking many pictures our thoughts turned to, what do we do with this hive?  So, what pops into our minds (well, my always connecting dots and joining occurrences thinking husband’s mind) calling the beekeeper family and see if they would like it. Sure enough they did want it and came that evening to collect the bees.

We ran into the family once again and they reported the bees have settled in to their new home and are doing “bee”autifully. They also shared another jar (the biggest jar I have ever seen) of honey.

One of my favorite ways to use honey is to drizzle it over Greek yogurt  and add some berries. I am now on the lookout for more recipes utilizing honey and coincidentally, a blogger who liked one of our posts, romancing the bee,  is a beekeeper herself and has many delicious sounding and looking recipes.

Bees are remarkable creatures when around and in their hives especially. Their ceaseless activity inspired awe in me as they crawled chaotically over each other each one doing their own thing . As one who has been stung too many times, I was doing my best to “send the bees love” and in the process developed a new appreciation for them.

~Sue