Bee Scare for Joy

[Cornelia]

Last weekend we went to Ticino, south Switzerland (by car...) and I was indoors when I heard my husband give a shout and tell Joy to go into the house immediately! When I looked out of the window, I could see the neighbours bees had swarmed out (the bee keeper gave us an estimate of 200'000 bees!!!).

We hoped they might go a bit further but they decided to gather on our laurel tree. I could not take a photo of the whole cluster but it was about 80-100cm long and 40cm in diameter. Here you can already see the bee keeper's head, who was trying to fix a rope to our laurel tree near the cluster of bees.

The bees were too high up to get them down, so he had to shake them out of the tree...

...in hope that they might settle down a bit lower again!

He finally managed to cut off a branch in hope that the queen was amongst the group - this is only a small part of the lot(!) - and went home with it. He was lucky and once the queen was back home, the rest returned. End of story four hours later - or not yet! 

Even with the best of precaution, Joy was not that lucky and stepped into a bee that evening and again the next day until we finally managed to get rid of the few that were stil left on the ground. And yet, Joy was lucky: The first sting did not hurt and with the second one, painful as it was, she did not show any bad reaction to it!! I found both stings and Joy was ever so tired afterwards and probably dreamt of bees...

One Corpus Delicti:

Just one last photo, taken the weekend before on another location, to show that they are actually beautiful creatures.

[Sherry Miller]

Oh my and what a sight to see.  Thankful Joy and both of her wonderful owners are alright....somehow having the courage to photograph all this is amazing .....hope that this is a one time thing for all of you....perhaps the beekeeper will bring you some nice honey later?  Amazing pictures. 

[Sharyn Latchford]

Wow what super photos...but poor Joy, not fun getting stung by one...

[Susan Mogony]

Great pictures and indeed lovely creatures! like the honey aswell, but when angry they are not so lovely anymore. Our neighbore also had bees. His son would take out the queen with bare hands when the bees where somewhere they shouldn't be. Always great to see.

[Anna Kazimierowicz]

An unusual adventure, great that Joy isn't an alergic, bee venom is very dangerous.

Fine photos and story:-)

[Cheryl Gorey]

Great photos.  So glad Joy wasn't harmed with the stings.  What an adventure!!