The Squirrel Channel and Bee Mail

J has gone off to inspect a plant near Indiana, and I am waiting for approvals on a new cover (we are just at the layout stage, but thank goodness, the type is already set). So it's a housework day. The cats are still disgusted with snow on the ground, so they are sitting in windows watching the squirrels, and watching me check on the pond.

When we toured the house, I was ready to take on the fish as a project (though I really did think they were just goldfish and would just need flakes now and then..hah). But there was also a very active and very large beehive behind the shed, and we were NOT ready to "do bees." We do get the previous owner's "bee mail" though. I had a much better grasp of what is involved in bee care since my brother keeps them. We went to visit his newly arrived bees when he got them, in a friend's basement; where, via the Post Office, a medium-sized mesh box was sitting on a table, humming. Humming in a very pissed-off way, too--there was some sugar water for them to eat, but they apparently did not enjoy the whole post office experience, and I am sure the feeling was mutual. I mean, my Post Office gets rammy if they think I am sending perishables or art supplies; I can just imagine the expressions on the clerks' faces if I came in with my humming mesh box of live bees. "Don't let them get below 50 degrees, OK?"

But in case you are in the US, and think bees would be cool (and they are cool), you can contact these guys; and they will set you up with a hive, a smoker, a suit, some mite powder and neat little hive dividers, and other gadgets for your little 6-legged fuzzy pets. And mail you a box of bees.