When you Discover you have a Wild Hive of Honeybees

This past January, I decided to check my wood duck box and take off the entrance reducer (used to prevent starlings from moving in), so that any investigating wood ducks could move in.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the duck house and was confronted with honeybee comb.  Luckily for me, it was cold outside and in my ignorance, I had opened a hive that could have immediately attacked me when I opened the door on any other day, but since it was cold, they didn't have the energy.  Sometimes, it's a benefit to be totally clueless.  Other times, not so much...but on this day it was.  I quickly pulled my hooded jacket tightly around my eyes and drew my hands back into my jacket like a turtle as I observed the comb and the 1" of dead honeybees on the floor.
I called my friend and fellow purple martin landlord, Calvin Cobb, in Hartshorn, Missouri who advised me to 'leave them alone until it warms up in Spring - and we'll see what's going on".  Leave them alone? Do you NOT know me?  So, on Feb. 15, I went to check on my bees.  I thought my pictures were kind of cool - hey, I have comb in a wood duck box!

I kinda felt like Sloth from "The Goonies", "Hey, you guys...I got bees..IN a WOOD DUCK box.... and I wasn't even trying!"

But this is 'everyday' stuff to the pros and my 3 or 4 little bees were kinda boring.  And, to be frank, I wasn't even sure I WANTED to keep bees - that is, as the beeks call it, "be a beekeeper". I'm ...well, I AM terrified of being stung. I don't NEED one more insect bite on my skin or something else to scratch and I have enough troubles with my dairy allergies.

So, I waited patiently for May to arrive, fully anticipating that this bee adventure was going to be a flop. But the honeybees had their own business to attend to and they kept trucking along....doing what honeybees do.

Finally, on May 17, 2018, we had the 'perfect' weather to open my wood duck box and see what my little backwater, redneck hive was up to.  I'm not sure what Calvin was thinking, but I was most certainly impressed!  So, this is what bees do with all that stuff they're gathering?

 I don't think Calvin had much hope for my little hive and I really didn't know what to expect. Sooooo, a trip to Hirsch Feed store in West Plains, MO and SOMEHOW, I am HOOKED and slowly transitioning to becoming a "beek".  My loving husband - my driver for, "you must educate yourself on this", ordered me a book from Amazon - "Beekeeping for Dummies" and dang...the more I read, the more I became hooked.  Who knew that bees had such an organized social structure.  Wow, this is fascinating stuff!
Then, my sister and I took a 4-wheeler ride to see what the bees were doing on June 16th. They were hot.  So was I.

As Calvin and I exchanged emails and phone calls, waiting for the perfect weather to move these bees, I continued to monitor them. "They're hot", Calvin said, "and they're trying to cool off", when I sent him the picture below.  We still had no idea what was waiting for us.

Finally, we were able to schedule THE day - today.  There would be NO cloudy weather or rain (which apparently makes honeybees VERY cranky) on June 28th.  Yes, Thursday, June 28th was going to be the REAL moving day for my girls. Never mind that it was going to be 92 degrees today.  Stay tuned for the rest of the story.  OMG, @ the expected heat!