Surviving Within the Swarms of Life

Several years ago, my husband and I made the decision to keep bees. It was more my idea than his but he supported my efforts. If truth be told, he’s still afraid of them. He can’t resist the temptation to swat when they crawl in his hair even though they’re simply investigating him. Nearly every time we’re handling the bees, he gets stung and I do not. After all, the key to surviving swarms of bees as well as the swarms of life is the same. To avoid painful stings, you must remain calm, calculate your actions, and move slowly.

Remain Calm

When I glanced out my bathroom window this last May, I was horrified to see a tornado of bees swirling in my backyard. Thousands of swarming bees were literally circling in a giant cyclone pattern behind our garage. My first response was panic. What was I to do to keep from losing my bees?

Bees swarm as a natural reaction to overcrowding. In the spring, when their numbers are increasing exponentially, the queen decides it’s time to split. She sends out scouts to find a new home then lays eggs in the hive to make a replacement queen. When she leaves, the majority of bees follow her but some stay to nurture the ‘queen cells’ until they emerge. In this way, a new hive is formed. If a beekeeper catches the swarming bees and their queen, they’ve gained another hive. But if not, most of their bees move on to another place.

Calculate a Plan

At times, it’s quite a challenge to catch these renegade bees. Generally, they will gather in a nearby tree or bush before taking off, but they often are too high for the beekeeper to reach safely. In my situation, the bees congregated in one of the lower branches of a spruce tree in our yard. I stifled my panic, sent up a prayer, and with God’s help, calmly formed a plan.

Before my husband and I decided to manage bees, we signed up for beekeeping classes. We learned invaluable information about everything from bee biology to honey extraction. During the ‘hands on’ part of our training, we spotted a swarm on a branch near the bee yard where we worked. As I calculated a plan to gather our swarm, I remembered all that our instructor did that day. I needed a box to put them in temporarily and a tool to cut the branch of the spruce tree in which they rested.

Move Slowly

When I had all the equipment I needed, my husband and I donned our bee suits with protective veil and gloves. With slow, gentle movements, we cut off the branch holding the bees and placed it in our box. Then we located the queen amongst the cluster of workers. The bees wouldn’t stay in a new hive if we missed her. Finally, we transported the bees into new boxes with frames, praying that they would stay. Even with all our hard work, there was no guarantee of success.

Surviving the Swarms

Such is true with life. Often we find ourselves caught in the middle of a swarm of worries with no idea how to get out. It takes tremendous courage and self-control to stay calm, calculate a plan, and move forward slowly step by step, implementing that plan. Never forget to pray for wisdom and God’s guiding hand in the process.

Surviving within the swarms of life isn’t easy. But panic never helps. All it does is guarantee you’ll be stung!

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