A True Hero. . . . Me, the Beekeeper.

Just crawling in bed, my body is so tired. I have had the longest most insane day.
Work: Birthday celebrations, baby showers, hoodies, water challenges, wall sits. . . whatever.
That's not where the crazy begins. . .

I beat the sun to work today, and so with my boss out of town and the day bight and beautiful I left early to go to Bluffdale and play with my bees.
About 4:15is I get a call from co-worker Dan-
"McKay!! want hear something crazy?. . I'm out in the parking lot and there is a swarm of bees in one of these trees"

"What?!?! Huh? are you sure they are bees?"

"Yeah, I'm positive they are bees, I'm here at work, I just walked out, our lot on the far East end you should come get them."

"Oh my gosh!" (this is a rare thing to find a swarm of bees in the wild and have the opportunity to be the one who collects it is very rare, kind of a once in a lifetime thing) "Dan! I'm like 30 minutes out! I'm in Bluffdale with my bees"

"Well, I bet they would still be here"

Hang up the phone and start going crazy with ideas, what if animal control or pest control is called?? what if they leave? what if. . . what if. . . .

I finish with the hive I was working on and close it up. I get to my car and call Co-worker Adam (another bee keeper in the office)
"Adam (I fill him in on what is happening) you need to go down! Go see what is going on! I'm on my way!"
Adam knows how exciting this is and grabs a cardboard box at the office and heads down.

He calls me back
"McKay! You have to get here THIS IS EPIC!" (I don't use phrases like that, but he does)
"I backed my truck under the branch and have a box ready to knock it into"

"Please wait for me! I'm 10 minutes out!"

I arrive and run thought the parking lot with my suit under my arm. As I get closer I see that bees are going crazy some must have been knocked down there is a cloud of them and I get closer to Adam he does not look well. "I'm stung" he tells me "They got me like 5 times on my head"
Why was he not wearing his gear? I'm still not sure- face/head stings can be serious.
He goes to a grassy patch to sit and I start to put my suit on. By the time I get to him he is laying down on the grass not moving, sweating like crazy.
"Adam, what can I get for you?"

By this time it is about 5:00 in our company parking lot, and we are surrounded by co-workers going home. So I grab co-worker Jeff and tell him where the Benadryl is in my desk and to run and get it.
Then Adam starts to throw up repetitively on the grass with no energy to sit up.
I yell to co-worker Eric to grab him some water.

After about 3 long minutes it seems like he is done throwing up.

But the bees are still going mad.

So all suited up I run across the parking lot to my car (The entrance to the lot was locked and I had to park forever way.) there was no time to take off the suit and I'm sure I was quite the site to see.
Some may have thought I was in a hazmat suit and wondering what the fuss was. While my co-workers who saw maybe didn't think much of it because I dress up and act nuts periodically at work and I bet they were just wondering if drew was around and in costume too.

I grabbed my smoker and my brush and ran back to the bees, got my smoker lit and started to smoke them out, calm everybody down. The van parked next to the truck was starting to get covered and the owner of the van was staring on in shock. . I ran to her and offered to get her car out. I backed out her car to safety.

As Adam started filling better there was one thing to do- get the bees in the box. And there was only one person that had the suit on to do it. The bees were angry but I felt so calm, I have never been in the presents of that many bees at once. And it is one thing when they are together inside a hive, it is a different thing when none of them have a home and they are swarming all around you. I started to hum a song to calm them down, calm myself down.
I was able to locate the queen and get her into the box, then it was bunch by bunch, bit by bit, directing them where to go, it took about a half hour in the chaos, relighting the smoker again and again to try and calm the bees.

Adam switched spots of lawn when he could sit up to move further away from the bees and maybe further away from his pile of half digested lunch too. Watching, and trying to feel better.

I got the majority in the box, closed the lid and strapped it down to the bed of the truck with tie-downs.

It might have been the coolest thing I've ever done with my life. It is quite rare to find a swarm, it is quite rare to be the beekeeper who gets to collect it. They are like gold in the beekeeping world, people fight over them. It is like a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

When all was said and done co-worker Jeff told me I was a hero and I don't think he was being funny. It made me feel like bursting into song, I was so proud of myself for staying calm, and handling everything like a true American Bee keeper.

Adam went to instacare. Getting stung 5 times in the head is no joke.

Adam took the bees to his place and we are going to create a new hive, or add them to our existing hive. Still yet to be determined.

After the chaos I went to my second hive at Drew's place, replaced the feeder cleaned out some of the extra wax, in this short time they are already producing honey, it tasted like spring blossoms, it truly was beautiful.

Then home again to make some more sugar water for this new swarm and now to bed.
I've been dealing with bees for the past six hours and I have never had a more fulfilling day.