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Jesse Derscheid is an apiarist, the fancy name for a beekeeper, or at least he was until a big old friendly black bear raided his hives last fall, destroying the hives he kept and making off with all the honey. “Couldn’t fault the bear,” said Jesse, although he was sad his bees’ home had been destroyed and many bees had died in the fight to save their queen.
Last Wednesday, July 21, Jesse was surprised to find that a swarm had formed in front of his house on a lilac bush. Maybe some of the scattered bees had returned home? Or maybe fate brought these bees to Jesse? Didn’t matter, Jesse was one happy man!
Jesse quickly made a bee box. He put on his beekeeper suit, and he grabbed some snips to trim back some branches. He stood on a small step ladder and slowly, slowly trimmed branches from the lilac bush as hundreds of bees swarmed about him.
Once he had enough branches out of the way, Jesse gently cut the swarm down and placed it in the box. If the queen was in the hive, then all of the mad bees that had been swarming him would follow.
Jesse stood back and wondered and hoped the queen was in the bee box.
Guess what? The queen was in the box and Jesse is once again a beekeeper! And Jesse wasn’t stung. Not even once!
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