Saying Goodbye to 30,000 Honeybees

As I mentioned in the last post, Thursday night we discovered a swarm of honeybees in the plum tree in our backyard. The night was warm, so half of them were still out and about, but the other half were home, protecting their queen. Again, here's a picture of the solid ball of bees, all settled on top of each other.



We looked up resources for honeybee removal and called Jerry the Bee Guy, who would take them for free and find a good home for them. In fact, he was available the very next morning (by which time the ball of bees was twice as large).

He said he didn't used to wear his protective hat when collecting swarms because honeybees in this state are usually very docile. But once in a while he'd run into a genetically aggressive bunch, so now he wears his gear, just in case.



He told us that the swarm, like all swarms, was in transit, and it wasn't likely to stay in our plum tree very long. Honeybees prefer more sheltered spaces, like a hollowed-out tree or a nice warm attic. The queen bee had just stopped to rest while worker bees scouted out potential homes. If they had taken up residence in someone's attic and started a hive, it probably would have damaged the house. It also would have been much harder to remove them, and they may have ended up getting destroyed.

So I felt OK about them getting vacuumed up into Jerry's water cooler jugs. He's either going to take them to his own apiary in Monroe, or sell them to another apiary. He said these seemed like very nice bees.

One of the jugs.





The other jug.



He told us that this swarm -- which he calculated at 30,000 strong, a very healthy-sized swarm -- recently started from an established hive somewhere within two miles. The hive had developed a second queen bee, so the first one needed to leave, taking one-third to one-half of the hive with her.



When Jerry was done vacuuming, he said he thought he'd collected 99.7% of the honeybees. And he said the stragglers would likely return to the original hive, where they would be welcomed back, despite their traitorous ways.

Unfortunately, he wasn't absolutely positive that he collected the queen, or that she would have survived the vacuum process. She's very fragile now, with a heavy abdomen swollen up with eggs. He told me he'd know in a couple days and that I could check in with him to find out what happened.

So I e-mailed him this morning, and we're still not sure, but things are looking good so far:

"I plan to open the box today when it gets a little warmer. It looks like a GREAT swarm so far. When I put them in the box here they displayed all the signs of the queen being present, so I have high hopes for this colony. I'll let you know when I have confirmed my guess."

And I'll let you know when he does.

Update. Heard from Jerry:

"I found the queen today....she's a nice, fat, healthy lady. I also got an email this morning from a beekeeper friend who has lost a colony, so I am going to pass this swarm colony on to her. The timing was good and everyone will be happy, including the bees. Thanks for calling me to get the swarm."

Unrelated P.S. Congratulations to my friend Phyllis Fletcher, who last night won a first-place regional Society of Professional Journalists award for this NPR story about the NCAA.

Ceanothus and Honeybees

I'd been thinking about doing a post about Ceanothus in Seattle.

I would have included these two May 4 photos of the Ceanothus drift near University Village (which I posted before).





I probably would not have included this other shot of them with waning blooms on May 23.



I definitely would have included this May 22 shot of a Ceanothus a block from my friend Kim's new place on Capitol Hill.



And this closeup of it as well.



I would have tried to get better shots (with the good camera instead of the point-and-shoot) of my own Ceanothus plants around their peak (but really just starting to wane) on May 23.





But I decided not to because I felt that I did not take photos of many of the best Ceanothus plants this year. The ones you see when you're driving by and you take your eyes off the road too long and almost cause an accident.

Also, I never got any good shots of the incredible number of honeybees that swarm Ceanothus bushes, especially the ones in my backyard. A friend from Portland remarked on it this weekend. She said she had never seen so many honeybees in Portland. I told her that's why I couldn't do any weeding around them in May -- it would be like sticking my hand into a hive.

It didn't occur to me until tonight that they might actually live in the yard. Until a neighbor knocked on our door, very concerned about the bee swarm situation in the back of our yard. She wasn't sure if they were bees, wasps, yellow jackets, or what, but that they were scaring people and making a big racket.

So we went down there to investigate. What kind of insect makes a brown, bumpy-looking nest?



Oh, that's not a nest. That's a mass of honeybees crawling all over each other.



Cool!

I feel honored that they chose a home in our yard. But I don't want to freak the neighbors out. And if they established a hive there, it would be much more intrusive to them than to us.

So we're going to see if Jerry the Bee Guy can come down and find a good home for them.

Bye-bye, bees!

Details on Upcoming Georgetown Art Attack on June 14

From Kathy Nyland at George:

GEORGETOWN SECOND SATURDAY ART ATTACK ON JUNE 14!

Adventurous Seattle art enthusiasts are invited to celebrate the arrival of summer at the Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack on Saturday, June 14 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. In only its fifth installment, the Georgetown Art Attack has established itself as one of the region’s most colorful cultural outings. The June 14 event features an impressive array of exceptional local, national and international artists in a variety of disciplines.

Among the many highlights:

The Seattle debut of photographs by Johanna Breiding of Zurich, Switzerland at Bella Vitale Studios. Her arresting images of abandoned European architectural environments can be previewed at: www.johannabreiding.ch/index.html.

A multimedia presentation, “Accidents Will Happen,” at Belle & Wissell. This exhibition is organized by Gabe Kean of Born Magazine and Georgetown Records’ Marq Dean, with EMP curator Jacob MacMurray and photographer Curt Doughty. The show examines the evolution of music photography in the Northwest through film, photographs and digital media. Featured artists include Seattle’s legendary seminal rock photographer Jini Dellaccio, as well as current masters on the genre Charles Peterson, Lance Mercer, David Belisle, Morgan Keuler, and others.

“Carnival de Monstruos,” Bruce Christian Andersen’s show of recent figurative ceramics and banner paintings by at Georgetown Tile Works – a three-dimensional retrospective of some of the most unusual and fascinating midway performers of the early 1900's.

A show of drawings and prints by sensational Southern California artist Josh Agle (aka SHAG) at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. “SHAG: A to Z” celebrates the pleasures of a hedonistic lifestyle and the virtues of overindulgence in his seductive and singular rendering style.

A display of power tool racers by Georgetown’s provocative collective Hazard Factory and a performance by musician Anna Coogan at Full Throttle Bottles; Rebecca Bolte’s work in music photography and album art at Bolte Creative; boisterous drinking, delicious dining, and exotic shopping experiences at over 30 locations throughout Seattle’s historic Georgetown business district.

The June 14 Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack coincides with the annual Georgetown Music Festival. For more information on the music festival visit: www.georgetownmusicfest.com.

The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack is a production of the Georgetown Merchants’ Association. A selection of images in a variety of formats is available for publication. For additional information contact GMA chair Kathy Nyland, or Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery curator Larry Reid at numbers above. Website:
www.georgetownartattack.com.

Mari and Andrew's Garden in West Seattle

My friends Mari and Andrew's West Seattle garden has grown up a lot since the last time I visited it almost a year ago.



That mass of green vines is now mostly concealing a sculpture of a cannon.



Complete with loaded projectile and everything.



Behind it, construction of the shop is well underway.



A bench loaded with cat mint.



Another spot for resting.



One of many gorgeous welded planters.



Pipe railings.



Mari said she thought all the exposed concrete and steel (which she is trying to soften with plants in every conceivable space) made the garden look a little hard, but personally I love it.



Mari and our friend Daniel.





Softness around the edges.













My midsection thick with a 6-month-old baby and a huge slice of coconut cream pie from the Vashon Hardware Store restaurant. (I ignored the two extra forks left on the table for Mari and Daniel and ate the whole thing by myself.)













Andrew the builder and his brother on the shop rooftop.





Clearly Mari didn't really need to take the sedum planting class at Dig with us.

A Few Photos from Dig Nursery

The Northwest summer is so luscious that occasionally I am going to need to share with you photos of plants that happen not to have been planted in the South End.

Yesterday I went to a sedum planting class at Dig Nursery on Vashon Island. I only took a few photos because it was the middle of the day.

Actually, some of the starts here in Sedumville are destined for a home in the South End -- hopefully today, in my front yard.





Oh, forget it, these photos are terrible. Too much sun. Let's see what I came up with instead the home store at Dig.

Here's the Blu Dot rocker that I used to want. Maybe I still do; I don't know.





Nice lawn chair!





This water feature is incredible.



I like this bird bath too.





See you later, Dig!