OMG it's a SWARM!

Imagine yourself in your backyard in the late afternoon, doing some weeding along a fence line. You start to hear a faint buzzing sound, barely noticeable at first, but gradually becoming louder and louder until you cannot ignore the fact that you are hearing bees, a LOT of bees buzzing. You (well, if you’re my age) flashback to that Outer Limits episode where the queen bee turns herself into a human, wreaks havoc, then buzzes away at the end after she falls (or was pushed) out the window by the human hero of the episode. This is that buzzing noise, a childhood fear revisited from an old TV show that is suddenly coming from ... where? You whirl around, peering into the bushes and over the fence, while you remember the swollen reaction you experienced the one time you were stung by a honey bee. You have a garden full of flowers; you are used to the bumblebees, the mason bees, and the honey bees you always see on your plants, usually at a comfortable distance—but when you finally see the SWARM, your mind freezes. 

The bees are in a neighbor’s yard, spewing out of the attic or perhaps from beneath the house, twirling and spiraling in their thousands with a thrumming hum that sounds almost more than real, like the sound effects from a bad B-movie about giant bees. You watch, spellbound, as the column of bees grows larger, moves upward and slowly arcs to cluster on the branch of a cypress tree, their movements so precise, graceful and incredibly cool that you find yourself not wanting the waltz to end. But some of the outliers—scouts, guards?—start strafing a bit too closely by you, so you high-tail it for your house to safety. You have possibly never moved so fast. 

Long story short: you alert your neighbor to what is clustered on his tree, then read up about honey bee hives and swarms and how important all bees are for pollenization. In the meantime, beekeepers come and coax most of the swarm to come live safely in their hives. Some of the bees are not coaxed, and you feel sad that they will not survive without their hive. But you hope that the main hive lives long and prospers. Then you realize you are seeing very few bees in your garden, and you mourn their loss. You want them back! 

Lesson to all: plant bee-attracting plants in your yards; you’re helping the earth and nature and all that. A little bit of a buzz is a good thing, ;-) And maybe you’ll witness another swarm sometime, somewhere, because they’re actually pretty cool. And the fantasy about giant bees? Hmmm, ideas for book plots abound. Who will write them?