The Bee's Knees
I spent this afternoon sitting in the sunshine 'helping out' at my mum's class picnic. (I don't do stuff to do with cooking meat, not the least because I never learned how, and there's only so much setting up one can do.) It went very well as we were parked on the other side of the building from the massive swarm of bees which suddenly appeared.
It was an awesome sight. My dad - being of that sort of mind - immediately sprang to calculating how many bees there were, and came up with numbers from 10-65,000. Holy crap, was my second thought, after, am I going to get stung? (I didn't, but one bee did follow me around for a little while. Note to self: wear less yellow.) The noise was so loud and yet, you wouldn't notice it in traffic.
The bees rose and fell like the sea. It was fascinating to watch. Some of them seemed to be hardly moving while others were zipping around like tour guides all "Okay, people". The head of maintenance thought they were probably making a nest in the chimney (fair guess: there were a lot of bees going into the chimney) or that maybe they'd fight, or sneak into the school, and he'd be left vacuuming up bees again. Apparently this happens every year, right on campus. Who knew?!
We ran into my IB physics teacher as well, who agreed. "Oh yeah, bees," was his attitude. "They used to call me to come get the swarms."
Because he used to keep bees on school grounds, apparently, but moved them at some back when this was all fields...Well, and an orchard, with beehives in. I guess if I had to go back and do highschool again, this time I'd do it with my eyes open.
When something like this happens, it's a bit of a shock. My life does not involve nature much. I like it that way. I'm a nature-tourist, and not so much interested in the day-to-day running of the show. It's a far cry from being sent into the woods with a sack, a smoke tin, and a watering can to get swarm. I'm not so melodramatic as to think I'd die (unless I was really unlucky) but I certainly wouldn't enjoy, and don't have any great urge to try it. Or to commune with nature generally. I mean, I'm all for saving the planet, I just don't have much of an urge to look at it up close. This makes me a bad person.
Feelings of awe, beauty, and the might of nature aside: am I the only one who thought that a swarm of bees was about the size of, say, a bag holding two or maybe three basket balls? Rather than a 5m by 5m by 5m seething mass of insects? How do you catch that with a smoke tin, a watering can, and a sack?
It was an awesome sight. My dad - being of that sort of mind - immediately sprang to calculating how many bees there were, and came up with numbers from 10-65,000. Holy crap, was my second thought, after, am I going to get stung? (I didn't, but one bee did follow me around for a little while. Note to self: wear less yellow.) The noise was so loud and yet, you wouldn't notice it in traffic.
The bees rose and fell like the sea. It was fascinating to watch. Some of them seemed to be hardly moving while others were zipping around like tour guides all "Okay, people". The head of maintenance thought they were probably making a nest in the chimney (fair guess: there were a lot of bees going into the chimney) or that maybe they'd fight, or sneak into the school, and he'd be left vacuuming up bees again. Apparently this happens every year, right on campus. Who knew?!
We ran into my IB physics teacher as well, who agreed. "Oh yeah, bees," was his attitude. "They used to call me to come get the swarms."
Because he used to keep bees on school grounds, apparently, but moved them at some back when this was all fields...Well, and an orchard, with beehives in. I guess if I had to go back and do highschool again, this time I'd do it with my eyes open.
When something like this happens, it's a bit of a shock. My life does not involve nature much. I like it that way. I'm a nature-tourist, and not so much interested in the day-to-day running of the show. It's a far cry from being sent into the woods with a sack, a smoke tin, and a watering can to get swarm. I'm not so melodramatic as to think I'd die (unless I was really unlucky) but I certainly wouldn't enjoy, and don't have any great urge to try it. Or to commune with nature generally. I mean, I'm all for saving the planet, I just don't have much of an urge to look at it up close. This makes me a bad person.
Feelings of awe, beauty, and the might of nature aside: am I the only one who thought that a swarm of bees was about the size of, say, a bag holding two or maybe three basket balls? Rather than a 5m by 5m by 5m seething mass of insects? How do you catch that with a smoke tin, a watering can, and a sack?