Bees!

We got bees! Aaron went to a two day course on beekeeping at Homestead Heritage in Elm Mott, TX, which is just north of Waco to learn all about bees. It was apparently a really incredible class, because now not a day goes by that I don't get to hear a new exciting fact about the wonderful and fascinating life of a honeybee. Did you know that there is only one queen in each hive and it costs $20 just to buy that one bee? Talk about reverse gender discrimination! There are really too many fun facts to regurgitate here, but just so you know, if you ever want to know anything about bees, Aaron is now the one to ask. Oh, he dove in head first. Not only does he have a specially-made wooden "hive," but he also has a "smoker," a book all about bees, and of course the full white suit, hood, and gloves. It makes me giggle everytime he puts on the suit because he looks absolutely ridiculous. It doesn't help matters that the suit is completely white and about 3 sizes too small.

Can you believe that they actually send bees in the mail? Crazy, I thought. But it's true. We got a call from a very anxious sounding postal worker at the Venus Post Office saying that our bees had arrived and that our mail lady was allergic to bees so she was not willing to deliver them. All of the postal employees were very relieved when we came to take the bees off their hands.

At first I was not very excited about having a bunch of bees at my house, but after a few days they stopped buzzing around so much and pretty much do their own thing. And neither of us have gotten stung yet, knock on wood. But Mabel got stung on her nose, and it turns out she's allergic. That led to a bit of drama, but the epi pen came to the rescue and all is well. Hopefully she learned that it's not a great idea to eat bees, but I'm not counting on it. If she knows what's best for her she'll stay away from that $20 queen!