We had a little excitement this afternoon.  My neighbor knocked on the door and said, “We have bees.”  What?  I said.  So he pointed to the tree in parking strip, ornamented with dark clumps of swarming bees, buzzing loudly.  As we stood around and wondered whom to call (Animal Control in Oakland is basically hopeless, though I think there’s a local guy who will remove swarms), the swarm moved from our tree to his tree, then swept onward to a yard about 3 houses down the block.  The whole thing took less than 10 minutes; I saw them last, through binoculars, orbiting around each other just short of the overhead freeway, a block away.

I wonder if they ever found a place they liked, to build a new hive.  The yard at that end of the block is posted as an official wild nature reserve, maybe they settled there.  Better them than me.  I like and approve of bees but I don’t want to raise them.