Each summer, my husband and I take an extended camping trip with our two pups Reishi and Mollie. Something funny always seems to happen to me on these trips in regards to bees. I always seem to meet a native bee or honey bee that wants to hang out with me or interact in some way. One year, a native bumble bee landed on my arm and crawled around on me for several minutes before deciding to leave. Another instance, in the middle of the desert, a native bee flew straight into my heart. I felt chills all over, as it was such a hard time to leave home because a family member was sick. I took this as a message that all would be ok.
This past summer trip, I was in New Mexico, and a honey bee landed on my hand at a restaurant and just hung out with me for a while. My friends always laugh because no matter where I go, the bees find me. They are sometimes a bit startled when a bee lands on me, but I let them know the bees are not aggressive and will not sting unless you provoke them. I don’t know why bees are attracted to me. Maybe somehow they know how much love I have for them.
I was so sad when I left to go camping this year because the hive in my backyard left in late July due to varroa mite infestation. This is the first time in 7 years that I don’t have bees in my backyard. It was sad to walk around the yard with no bees flying. About two days after I returned home, a friend was moving logs in the yard and found a nest of our native bumble bees! I was ecstatic to find that I did have bees in the yard! I was so happy to know the native bees felt safe enough to make a home just a dozen feet away from my old bee hive.