Bee Hive Jive

Someone bought the two story house down the road from us not too long ago.  And one day, on my way home ,I saw them moving in bee hives.  I thought that was wonderful, as ever since Hurricane Rita came through, we've have less  and less bees around.  Once was, if you set a canned drink down outside, at least one or two bees were going to hover it.  And if it was a Dr. Pepper, you could count on one crawling up inside if you didn't cover the opening when you weren't sipping.  For quite some time it has been that you could eat or drink most anything outside and never see a honey bee. While that may be convenient, it's not good for nature or gardens.  

As April came round, we began working on the pool to get ready to enjoy it once more.  Just as we had the water crystal clear and was primed and pumped for an approaching warm weekend we discover a couple hundred bees ringing the side of our pool!  This distressed me greatly, as much as I enjoy having the pool and as happy as I was to see bees back.  Would we have to do all our swimming in the late evening and night to avoid them?  

I shouldn't have worried or stressed over it.  Pete looked the situation over and thought it through.  He said, "They aren't coming for water.  They are coming for the thin layer of pollen that is accumulating around the side of the pool at the waters edge.  Armed with a  cloth and a spray bottle of chlorine bleach, Pete would dampen the cloth with the bleach and scrub the vinyl from the waters surface to the top of the pool.  Once again no more than three or five bees hummed near the pool.  Perfect solution for us and the bees.