The Secret Life of Bees

[captainsblog]

Emily made a housework proposal to me a few weekends ago, which I gleefully accepted. Our feeding routine, for years, has been: I feed the teeming hordes in the morning, she feeds them at dinnertime. Ideally, this occurs on the sixes, but if the aminals had their way, it'd be more like 3.

Now that she's back in school and needs to get up early anyway, she offered to trade me five tasks for two: she'd do all the weekday feedings (subject to availability) if I dealt with the weekends, morning and night. Seems I was waking her up with my routine, so better if she just did it.  This has worked out beautifully on the mornings the lunks don't all come and wake me up anyway, but it also led to some amazing discoveries as I did the rounds both times yesterday and again this morning:

Our cellar is breeding a bloated, incoherent form of bumblebees.

----

I'd found dead ones down there at various times earlier in the year, which I assumed had hitched lifts with the assorted plants that Eleanor winters in the greenhouse section of the cellar. These buggers, on the other hand, are, at best, Mostly Dead- and on at least two occasions have chosen cat food receptacles as their places of demise. (One was in Michelle's bowl last night, the other in an empty can near their feeding area the previous morning.)

We suspect they're getting in through the dryer vent, and are being carbon monoxided to near-death as they take that route. Each of them, so far, has received a fragile return trip to the outside world, usually after shoveling each into the empty cat fud can and then covering it momentarily with the peeled-off lid, just to keep from getting stung. (The one from last night was still conscious enough to let off some serious protests in there until I returned Buzzy safely to the outside ground.)

My late mother and sister are spinning in their graves as I write this, since both were petrified of bees. Don't worry, though; I promise never to take it THIS far:

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

It's a shame you're not into Doctor Who-- disappearing bees was a running thing this past season.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

While not a rabid fan of bees, I am aware that the shortage of them is affecting gardeners around the country. My uncle is convinced the shortage is the cause of his less than stellar tomato crop. Now I know where they all are...drunk and in your dryer vent! Mystery solved!