Beetle Battle!

Beetle Battle!
Originally uploaded by tgretchen

Visiting the bees DID help perk me up quite a bit today. I just love watching them, busy with work! It's an amazing world to me. I was so pleasantly surprised by the growth in Mark's hives...they stand pretty tall now so it was pretty impressive. We even took one small frame back with us to sample the honey. Verdict: DELICIOUS!

This is one of my favorite videos and I've been trying to record one where guard bees are at work protecting the hive. They protect against robber bees (from other hives) and intruders such as this beetle. They pushed it out and made sure it left before they returned to the entrance of the hive. That is pretty neat in my book. So now I know there are drones, workers, attendents, guards and the Queen. :)

By the way, they are still very gentle and accepting. I snapped photos and videos without wearing a veil or gloves and never got stung. At one point, Mark even pointed out that I was right in the middle of the flight path and they just flew around me. It was so cool to stand among all the bees. Really made my week. Thanks for taking me out there, honey.