Swarm!

Carrying some ripped up plants back to the compost pile, I noticed a few honeybees crawling around on one of the trash barrels. Five honeybees are no big deal, so I decided I'd shoo them away later.

For now, I had more river rock to excavate.

Then I heard a weird noise, like nothing I'd ever heard before.

But I knew it was scary.

The noise sounded like the drone of honeybees, but loud, way too loud. All at once I saw them. A churning cloud of bees filled the sky over our neighbor's back yard. I had not seen that many bees, grand total, in my entire life! Now here they were, descending on the neighbor's house. Being compassionate toward my neighbor, I thought, "You poor bastard!" Then the bees found the trash barrel their scouts had staked out for them. The swarm came over, dropped down out of the sky, and filled our back yard.
 
Photo from Kohala. I was too astonished to grab our camera!

They flew all over the yard, fast and menacing, like Zeros in a Pearl Harbor movie. We watched them from inside the house, and I wondered if we'd ever be able to go outside again. But eventually we noticed that there weren't as many of them. Gradually we felt safe enough to go out and confim our fears. Yes, almost all the bees had crawled into the trash barrel. Within the hour, the back yard was the same as it had always been. A few honeybees worked on the poppies and wisteria, but no more than usual. The only thing unusual was that we now had a trash barrel that hummed like a little power plant.

By sunset that day, our fear had ebbed. A swarm of bees is frightening, but individually, honeybees are very cute, the same way kittens and puppies are. We began to wonder if we could buy a bee hive and keep them.

We spent the rest of the weekend studying the art and science of beekeeping. The more we read, the more complicated it seemed.

Someday we'll take some classes, join the local beekeepers club, and prepare ourselves for the responsibilities of beekeeping. Sadly though, we sure weren't ready now. We decided, with real regret, that this batch of honeybees would have to go.