The Bee House

Subtitled: How we got our house for such a bargain.

Note: This story is not 100% true. We don’t know all the facts of the matter. This is what we are able to piece together from stories told to us and by some evidence found.

A few years ago, a family lived in Creekistan. There were two houses on the property. In fact, it resembled a small neighborhood. They had lots of dogs, some chickens, and played Bluegrass music. The older folks lived in the house close to the road, and one of their grown children lived in the other house.

They were not rich. In fact, from what I can tell, the people living in the house close to the road, let’s call it House A, were subsidizing their mortgage by charging those living in the other house, House B, rent.

This arrangement seemed to be working fine, until House B became infested with Bees. The bees entered into the house though a hole and made a hive in the insulation. The hive grew rather large.

In order to keep the people in House B on the property, and keep them paying rent, the people in House A decided to build an addition to House A, and have everyone live in House A.

The new arrangement didn’t work. From what I can tell, the family from House B left. Because the people in House A was not receiving rent, they could not afford to stay in House A nor could they pay for the unfinished addition on the house.

Everyone left. Actually, “abandonded” is more like it. They left a lot of things: furniture, clothing, toys, junk, junk, and more junk.

We purchased the house from the bank since the owners had foreclosed.

We got it for a song.

Or should I say, we got it for “Buzz.”

A beekeeper is called an apiarist (say ape-ee-uh-rist). We had tried contacting a local apiarist to move the hive. But it got cold and we did not want to destroy the hive, just move them. We let them remain through the winter. We waited until Spring, which is now! But it seems the Bees have moved on. We hope.

The Bee house is going to be torn down. It is a mess. There are old appliances on the porch. There are piles of clothing in the basement. Everything is covered with bee carcasses.

Whatever history the Bee house had, whatever stories the walls could tell, has been destroyed by neglect of the people previously living there. Mother nature is trying to take it back--and we are probably going to help her.