05/13/2025
This past week I got asked if I wanted to do a bee job at church. What I understood was there was a big swarm of bees on a door. Okay, sounds good. I packed up my supplies, including a 6 foot ladder and went over. When I got there I discovered the door that the bees were up on was a very tall roll up style garage door. My ladder was a joke in comparison. I asked to borrow a taller ladder, and eventually was brought a scissor lift. Not going to lie, I felt pretty badass getting on a scissor lift to do a bee job. This was seriously the largest colony of bees I’ve ever seen! Super impressive numbers! When I got up to the swarm to scoop them from their current location and into my hive box, it got much more complicated. The roll door mechanism leaves some empty spaces in the building that the bees had decided to hang around in, and the actual casing for the roll door is big and cavernous. There was only so far I could see and reach into these spaces. Most of it I was doing blind. I removed thousands of bees and placed them in the box. The number of bees on/in the building got less and less. The bees in the box were fanning and showing signs that I had gotten the queen. After about 3 hours and enduring *many* stings, I decided that was good for now. I would come back later that night to collect my beautiful box of bees and call it a successful day! Unfortunately when I got back that night the bees had decided on a different plan. They moved out of the box and all the way into the roll door housing. I had to tap out. I couldn’t see where they were and couldn’t pull this off in a blind spot, swollen and exhausted. I felt like I let people down. Ultimately, it takes courage to admit when you’re in over your head, but that stupid feeling of failure persists. I guess you win some, you lose some. I did win a scissor lift ride, a trip to urgent care, some steroids, and a few of my very own epi pens for the future just in case 😅 Luckily my swelling has decreased and I’m starting to recognize my arm again, but I’ve promised myself no bee jobs this week! 🤣 Happy Monday!
