Interesting Event With Bees (true story)

[Tobi]

This is an actual series of events which happened in the early 1990s. I haven't embellished anything. It is a completely true story.

Back then my husband was alive. He had a bit of a 'spat' with a neighbour, the owner of the orchard next to us. They argued bitterly. I was a bit upset about this on-going feud, but mainly left them to it.

One day a bee hovered around my hand. I kept very still, and suddenly the bee landed on my hand!
I spoke to this bee. I told it about all the troubles that were going on which were upsetting me. I actually asked it if it could help, and asked if it could -then please would it send me a sign....?

It flew away.

A few days passed. One day my husband came home from town and told me he had met that neighbour outside the supermarket. The neighbour had said "We are both too old and too long in the tooth to be behaving like this with each other". They shook hands, and decided to patch up their argument.
I was quite pleased (still didn't think about the bees) Then my husband told me the neighbour had invited him to afternoon tea the next day!

The next day my husband went to tea.
He came home a couple of hours later, carrying a pot of honey. He told me the neighbour had given it to him as a gift, that he kept bees, and had said "Just think -my bees may have gathered nectar for that honey from the flowers in your garden."

How amazing! I reckon the bees sent their sign! What do you think?

A little while later a swarm flew over me when I was in the garden -they hovered for a while, almost as if to give a greeting -then departed to the north.

[Catherine]

Your neighbour's bees were getting nectar from your garden. They would not have wanted a feud either. It would disturb their peace. I don't know what they did, but they must have done something.
Of course you spoke to the bee in the first place.

I talk to the bees in my garden and elsewhere. I think lots of us talk to the bees in our lives.


We have a family story about bees. My grandmother as a young woman(around 1900)visited a beekeeper. An entire hive came out as a swarm and settled on her. The bee keeper said "It's okay Helen just stay calm and you will be fine". She was calm and was not afraid of the bees. The keeper fetched the queen and the bees followed her back to the hive. My grandmother was not stung even once. She had sat there calmly covered with countless numbers of bees.

I always took that to mean that we had some kind of special relationship with bees. She always said "If you let the bee be, the bee will let you be".
There is truth to that. We now know that we need bees to survive. If we do not help the bees to be, we won't be either.
I never get stung and bees even land on me. My whole garden is set up to feed bees(and birds) and provide for them. I have a number of different bee species in my garden. If I can get a proper bee book I will try to identify them. I am always trying to get pictures.

[Tobi]

That is amazing, what happened to your grandmother, Catherine. It is true that bees just 'know' certain things, and definitely know when a person has an energy that they like, an energy which is peaceful and harmonious. When we're afraid we put out very jagged un-rhythmic energy. When we are quiet and gentle, there is a smoother rhythm. I guess the bees respond to that.

[Catherine]

I think my grandmother taught me whatever it is that she had. I am calm around bees (and other insects) and I never have trouble with them.

I don't have trouble with the wasps either. Years ago I was eating outside and a wasp kept buzzing around me. So I poured out a few drops of my sweet juice and the wasp drank it. Then I cut off a tiny piece of my meat and held it out and the wasp took it from me. It was pretty funny if you think about it. I am trying to give a piece of food to a tiny creature that is buzzing in front of me. It was hard to hold my hand still enough and it was hard for the wasp to take something from my hand.
The wasps and I have had a special relationship ever since. If they want a taste of my food all they have to do is ask.

I had a wasp on my back against my skin. I didn't know it was there. When I leaned back, it just gave me a little pinch so I wouldn't crush it. It didn't sting me. It must have pinched me with its mouth because there was a faint red mark. As soon as I leaned forward the wasp took off, but it wasn't mad at me. It still hung around. I think I have some kind of bond with the insects in my garden, but especially my bees and wasps.

[Tobi]

Many years ago I was attacked deliberately and wilfully by a "Warrior Wasp" who followed me everywhere because he hated my guts. That didn't do me too much harm. I had the presence of mind to remove 2 rings before my fingers swelled up like sausages.

Now I don't wear rings....and now I feed wasps. We have a nice relationship. I gave a visiting wasp some pear yesterday, and when I came back to look, he/she had eaten quite a bit of it!

Wasps also love sawdust. They make their nests out of it, mixed with saliva. Sometimes you will see wasps chomping away at any rotten or soft wood. They are collecting the wood dust in their mouths, to carry home to build the nest. Wasps' nests are most wonderful sculptures in the 'Art Nouveau' style!

[Catherine]

I love the image of us both feeding wasps. I think they are interesting creatures. If they like sawdust then they must love the old log and tree stump from a tree I cut down. I must look at it more closely and see if I can see signs of the wasps collecting the sawdust.

I don't have a wasp's nest in my yard. I think my trees are too small. I think I will look around and see if I can spot one. They may have a nest in my neighbours tall tree.

I know the bees must have a hive/nest or whatever nearby. There are so many around.

What happened to make a warrior wasp hate you. I know they remember people and will follow them. I just can't imagine what would have triggered such strong feeling.

[Tobi]

I don't know quite what annoyed the wasp. It was a long time ago, maybe 25 years, and I was different then in many ways. Plus we had Toby then, and he liked nothing better than to bark in the garden, and pretend to hunt things down. He made quite a racket! He was a barker who would make a noise just for the sheer fun of it, as he hunted his invisible mice.
This didn't upset anyone (or so we thought) as we had no neighbours for quarter of a mile or more.
Maybe we upset the wasp.

I looked up wasps' nests online, and many of them look globe-shaped. But I saw one once here which had been pulled out of a dead tree. I don't know who pulled it out. Maybe the farmer. It was very sad because their home had been destroyed. But the nest was a work of art, made with the most beautiful curved shapes. It didn't look as if it had ever been globe-shaped.

[Catherine]

I have seen those globe shaped nests. They are so carefully constructed. The wasps are able to stay warm all winter in them.
I don't know why people tear them down. As far as I know wasps do good things in the garden.

Maybe your warrior wasp didn't like dogs. Odd he would go after you though.
I think we both have grown into our relationships with wasps. I think once I offered food things changed. They must communicate with each other because wasps are fine around me, but the original wasp would be long gone.
Food is the universal language of friendship.