We removed every source of food that we had put out. The hummingbird
feeders came down and were placed at the edge of the yard, with a towel thrown over
them. Kim picked up the plate, shook the bees off and took it in the camper.
Then I decided to wait to see how long it would take for them to get the
hint that they'd overstayed their welcome.
Numbers were greatly diminished in thirty minutes. In an hour, a
few stalwarts were still buzzing around, mostly over by the covered feeders. Must
have been driving them crazy to know the nectar was in there but not able to
get to it. It took a full two hours for
the bees to clear out, with only one or two still buzzing around. In the
meantime, the hummers were going crazy looking for the feeders, which will stay
undercover until tomorrow or possibly Sunday.
Depends on if we see any bees back in the yard tomorrow.
We’ve put hummer feeders out every year we’ve been at this site and have
never had a bee problem before now. Yay! for the comeback of the honeybee…Boo!
for making our campsite their campsite.
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Something came in last night and ate all the watermelon except for two
small pieces in the bowl and one on the ground. While I sat outside, timing the bees’ departure, I watched sparrows struggle with the piece of melon on
the ground and both a sparrow and Peter Cottontail nibble at the orange slices. Also watched lizards run up and down the tree,
birds fighting over the seed ring, and hummingbirds looking for the feeders,
not to mention watching the few bees that refused to admit defeat. All that was missing was a David Attenborough
narration.
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Windshield repairman arrived just before noon to do his thing. He expected it to take a couple of
hours. And after replacing it, he had to
take it for a drive to calibrate all the high-tech stuff contained in the
windshield. Sounds like an opportunity take
a test drive to me, but what do I know about windshields. It was done in less
than two hours. Couldn’t drive it for an
hour, can’t wash it for two days…give everything a chance to set.
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Before we headed out on a ride,
Kim went up to the office for a minute. I had the time, so I thought I’d adjust
the towel over the feeders since I’d noticed a couple of bees still buzzing
around it. Grabbed the towel, yanked it off the feeders and couldn’t believe my
eyes…all those freakin’ bees had found a way under the towel and were eagerly
chowing down on nectar! What the
hell?! While I was sitting here,
happily thinking that the bees had left to take advantage of another fool’s
generosity, they were sneaking under the towel.
They started buzzing around after their
cover got blown, so I retreated to the camper to think of another
strategy. Obviously, bringing the
feeders inside was the next step but I couldn’t think of how to do that by
myself without letting bees in the camper.
So, I waited for Kim to return.
Told him what I’d discovered and then declared, “This means war!” to
which he patiently replied, “No, we can’t declare war on honeybees.” And they know we can’t and they’re taking advantage
of that fact!!
Kim went out to get the feeders. He’d pick a feeder up, give it a gentle twist to shoo the bees off and bring over to me at the door, making sure it was bee free. I then put it in the sink. Three times we repeated this little dance before heading out to the bikes. The bees followed us. Why, I don’t know; but as we each got ready to ride, they swarmed about us. I got on the radio to Kim and said, “Let’s see how these buggers like the sound of the bikes.” Both bikes started at the same time, which I assumed would hurt their little bee ears; nope, they didn’t react at all. At that point, Kim said, “One thing I know for sure…we can outrun them.” So, we did.
Got back from our ride and there was not a bee to be seen in our yard. Since I don't know if it was simply time to return to the hive or if they left because we were rude, we’ll have to wait to see what tomorrow brings.
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Based on their frenzied flying, today had to be a stressful time for the
bees, with us removing their sudden windfall of food, not once but twice. But
they kept their stingers to themselves and I’m grateful for that.
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Too cloudy for Kim to do any imaging tonight so we watched the first
episode of the third season of Reacher.
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