Tom Valdez Photography - Photo Journal

5 photos of 20,000 bees hanging out on Friday the 13th

Well, Friday the 13th brought me and the kid a bee swarm.  Early in the morning the kids were outside and they came running in to tell me there were some bees outside.  I went to check it out and to my amazement there were bees swarming all around on the side of the house .  The area they were swarming was the entire length of the lawn on the westside of the house.  They soon must have noticed me because they began to come towards me.  I obviously ran inside.  The entire house was surrounded by bees.  It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  We were stuck inside looking out the windows.  About an hour later the swarming had disappeared with just a fews bees flying about.  I was able to go back outside and look again.  I found the swarm again but they were in a more concentrated area on the other side of the lawn by a tree.  I continued to watch for a while from a safe distance away.  Then I noticed on the branch of the tree a large cone shape hanging there.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  From the distance I could only see the shape with the bees flying around it.  Did they make a bee hive right there?  I was just in that area of the yard yesterday and did not notice anything.  They must have built this hive over night.  I couldn’t get close enough to take a good photo.  I immediately thought if a hive was right there in the open I was going to have to have it removed.  I made a call to the critter control I have used throughout the years.  They told me that bees are swarming right now and they usually leave on their own.  I was convinced they had built a hive and I wanted it moved today. They gave me a few phone numbers of bees keepers that might be able to help.  I knew I had to take a photo so I could email it to the keepers to view so they would come out and help.  I managed to get a shot that showed the shape, but from the distance I was standing, I couldn’t  capture a lot of detail.  The keeper I sent the photo too was able to quickly tell me exactly what it was.  He said it was actually all the bees surrounding the queen Bee to protect her.  He explained to me that the bees had left their hive to find a new home.  They were hanging out, so to speak, while the scouting bees were out looking for a new home.  The bee keeper came out later in the day to remove them.  He shows up in a t-shirt and with no bee safety suit.  He turned on his vacuum to suck them up in a box.  I thought for sure he was crazy and the bees were going to swarm from even just the noise of the vacuum.  But, to my amazement they stayed put to protect their queen.  There were bees flying around all over him but not stinging.  I decided to conquer one of my fears and get up close to take these final photos.  I just had to have these photos.  I went right up to the bees and took these shots.  I stood there as long as I could stand it.  Bees were flying all around me and landing on my head.  It was the creepiest thing I ever experienced but it was well worth it.  The pictures aren’t  as clear as I would have hoped, but give me a break my hands were shaking pretty bad.  

Well, I learned 3 things from this experience.
1:  It’s true bees aren’t as dangerous as most of us like to think.
2: I am going to get very brave being a photographer
3: The economy is so bad that even the bees are loosing their homes and have to take  up temporary housing. LOL!