A Hive of Bees
In My Bedroom
By Marjory Wildcraft
Founder, The Grow Network
Early one beautiful morning, I heard a knock on my door. Then, my landlord Max stepped a few feet to the left and poked his head through my open window "Hey Marjory, I've got to talk with you".
Max is from Martinique and he has this lovely accent that I wish could come through via text.
"Marjory, we are finding a problem. There are bee's. We think they are living in the ceiling above you bed" Max said.
Max then introduced me to bee keeper Carlos Chaparro, who quickly found a hive of bee's in the space between my ceiling and the floor of Max's apartment above
I noticed Max kept fidgeting and stayed very close to the front door. He repeatedly asked to make sure I was OK with Carlos removing the bees. I told him that I had been a beekeeper when a teenager. And, as soon as he was certain I was OK, Max sprinted up the stairs to his apartment.
I asked Carlos if I could watch, or theoretically 'help'.
"Well, I didn't bring an extra suit" he said.
Actually he didn't bring a suit at all. He worked in shorts, a t-shirt, and a bandana. A smoker, some buckets, and a few tools were all he had.
I figured "when in Rome". So I followed the Carlos’s lead and remained in standard Puerto Rican attire of shorts and t-shirt. I never got around to the bandana.
When being around bee's you want to move slowly and think good thoughts. It also helps if you don't wear perfume or wash your hair with heavily scented shampoo.
Carlos carefully separated segments of the hive and gently removed them from the ceiling. He attached the slabs of comb with rubber bands to wooden frames. The frames went into a box the bee's will live in. And as he worked, he carefully looked for the queen