We just noticed a bee swarm and told the farmer. Have you ever seen a bee swarm? More over, have you ever heard a bee swarm? The farmer watched awhile and then began to quickly dismantle a dirty old hive. And then reassemble it, clean. It is not easy to hurry up, when working with delicate sheets of bees wax. But we joined in and helped hurry up, delicately. Then we watched in bald amazement as the farmer walked up to the swarm with the hive and a pair of pruning shears. He set the hive down, opened the top, cut the branch on which the hive had settled, and dropped all the bees into the box. Then he closed the lid. A-mazing! He didn't even bother with the wedding veil. He just marched out there and put the bees to rights. Then, he cinched it all closed and drove it over to our house. Now, we have a hive of bees in the chicken yard. Yes, bees. Yes, here.

I tell the kids all the time. You just never know what is going to happen in a day.

Since bees are matriarchal, we had a nice discussion of why humans tend to set up patriarchal societies. And I loved (loved loved loved!) hearing that come from our sweet gentleman farmer. And not one snide word from me. Just admiration and delicate hurrying. And now we have bees. Did mention that we have bees?