working with bees is about so much more than just working with bees. it's about self-governance, attentiveness, patience, and faith. sometimes it is even about learning to walk in forgiveness.
and nowadays it even involves an epipen...
it just wasn't a perfect situation, so i had to choose between a rock and a hard place. i could either: 1. stress the bees by loading them the afternoon before in the rain and adding more stress by keeping them penned up for too long, or 2. stress the bees by opening the hive at night, but keeping their confinement to a minimum.
i went with curtain number 2.
i passed the point of no return the moment i popped the super off the top. those bees just started boiling out! (this is where self-governance comes in. a little voice in the back of my head just kept urging me to "RUN"!)i feel certain that if i'd had a little more light i would have seen scowls on their grumpy little faces.
it was quite a humbling experience. of course i had suited up, but unfortunately, i zipped my hood AFTER i put my gloves on so i didn't realize that i hadn't sealed the velcro around the zipper securely. (aha, "attentiveness"!) bees like to crawl at night. they CAN fly, but they seem to prefer crawling as their mode of transportation after the sun goes down. well, 4 or 5 of those angry girls crawled right through that gap and let me have it. those bees were completely different creatures from the girls that i meet every couple of weeks out in the sunshine...kind of like that movie a few years ago with the cute little animals you weren't supposed to feed after dark... "gremlins" i think.
reader's digest version is: i spent the next 48 hours dealing with the symptoms of an allergic reaction in varying degrees. this was quite new to me, obviously unexpected, and VERY painful. ("patience" required. i knew it would pass, but it just wasn't passing quickly enough.)
by the time monday night rolled around and i was in the throes of a delayed reaction and it seemed that i had no one to turn to. (that's where forgiveness comes in.) but God has given me such wonderful friends. molly and jack came to the rescue! they drove 45 minutes or so to pick us up in the middle of the night - me, and two dogs, and two sleepy boys- and drove us back across town to spend the night with them. they gave me peace of mind and help in time of need. the comfort that gave me can never be overstated...
we didn't make it to the demonstration that day, which was a disappointment for all of us. but, God blessed me once again through Laney. i had to get the bees OUT of the observation hive and back into the brood box with the rest of the colony, but i certainly wasn't up for another encounter yet. Laney drove all the way down here just to let them out and put the brood frame back where it belonged. andrew was right there with him, watching and helping when he could. he's a brave little guy, and loves learning about the bees. he very gallantly informed me that if indeed i am allergic to bees, not to worry because HE would take care of them!
so much to be thankful for.
and now i am required to walk in faith. i will wait a few weeks for my antibodies to build up again, then go for allergy testing. i will not borrow trouble and worry about the results. i just have to trust that God is in this.
