If five thousand bees show up in your yard, Kyleen MacGugan would like them back.
She was hoping the hives would sweeten her holidays. But now it appears she might have to go without.
On Wednesday, the Wallingford woman was wallowing in the quiet, bemoaning the buzz that became absent.
The queen of the honeys abdicated her throne, and with a throng of some 5,000 insect escorts, left the others bee-hind.
"So they're somewhere in Wallingford, looking for a new home," said MacGugan. "I walked around the block, looking for them. I was not calling out to the bees, but I was looking up in the trees."
It's too bad there's no app for that.
"They do not microchip bees," MacGugan said. "Sometimes you can put a red dot on the queen, so you can find the queen in your hive."
There are still some 15,000 bees.
Before the others took flight, MacGugan was about to split the hive. She knew the queen needed some space. But her royal highness was royally impatient.
"I was pretty bummed," she said.
The Puget Sound Beekeepers Association says thanks to a cool spring, swarming season came late this year. Now this hobbyist hopes others honeylovers help reclaim the queen she loved and named "Freddy Mercury."
"The queen that was in it -- get it?" she said.
She stops short of calling it separation anxiety. After all, her precious pets have only been parked in her backyard since April.
Still, if she could direct each drone toward home...
"Maybe like a homing device or something," she said.
She was hoping the hives would sweeten her holidays. But now it appears she might have to go without.
On Wednesday, the Wallingford woman was wallowing in the quiet, bemoaning the buzz that became absent.
The queen of the honeys abdicated her throne, and with a throng of some 5,000 insect escorts, left the others bee-hind.
"So they're somewhere in Wallingford, looking for a new home," said MacGugan. "I walked around the block, looking for them. I was not calling out to the bees, but I was looking up in the trees."
It's too bad there's no app for that.
"They do not microchip bees," MacGugan said. "Sometimes you can put a red dot on the queen, so you can find the queen in your hive."
There are still some 15,000 bees.
Before the others took flight, MacGugan was about to split the hive. She knew the queen needed some space. But her royal highness was royally impatient.
"I was pretty bummed," she said.
The Puget Sound Beekeepers Association says thanks to a cool spring, swarming season came late this year. Now this hobbyist hopes others honeylovers help reclaim the queen she loved and named "Freddy Mercury."
"The queen that was in it -- get it?" she said.
She stops short of calling it separation anxiety. After all, her precious pets have only been parked in her backyard since April.
Still, if she could direct each drone toward home...
"Maybe like a homing device or something," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment