Usually the bees are peaceful. Usually.

How bees can also teach us a lesson metaphorically speaking, I had the privilege of learning this week.

A happy sunny morning. Nice visitors with a 3-year-old came over briefly. Of course the curiosity is great and the thirst for knowledge is strong. I am always happy when young people are interested in interesting things at the beginning of their lives.It was 'bee day' anyway, i.e. the weekly inspection where we beekeepers check that the queen is there and whether swarm or replenishment cells can be found in the colony.

Experience told me for this day: a perfect day for beekeeping. I choose the smallest colony, not even a whole colony, it is an offshoot, so a honeycomb with a queen cell from another hive, which was put together with a food honeycomb and an empty honeycomb, so that the queen can hatch and a new colony can develop. The queen had hatched the week before last, last week the first eggs and young brood could be seen. A beautiful big strong queen. Then she got her blue crown (the little plate with this year’s color blue).

For the young visitor, this is exactly the right colony to take a look at, since the queen can then be found relatively quickly on two or three honeycombs. This is also possible with a corona distance (to the beekeeper, not to the bees :-)). I step back a bit and let the visitor get close to the hive. This morning the circumstances were actually 'as best as they could be’. Actually.

Since it was already getting warm, I spontaneously decided on this positive sunny day not to use a veil. Although I usually always put on a veil. Despite all the protection, the veil is annoying from time to time. Like the mouth-nose mask we currently have to wear. I hadn't offered my two visitors a veil either - I noticed that afterwards.

This is actually not a problem, especially for the small colonies just started, if - like on this day - the other factors (weather, wind, time of day, etc.) are right. I pulled the first honeycomb with a few bees on it, no problem. The 'young curious' was thrilled.

Then we pull the brood comb; we quickly discovered the queen with her blue crown. The highlight. All good. And suddenly a few bees defined the beekeeper as an enemy and pounced on me (interestingly enough, only me, the boy and his mother were left alone, probably due to corona distance).

I had almost forgotten how painful a bee sting can be. Especially when there are several, and all of them on the head. Fortunately, my body has developed some immunity over time. Almost no swellings, just the painful stings per se, especially if e.g. in the eyelid will be remembered. 'Usually he’s always wearing a veil nowadays’ my wife would say now. Usually.

The bees probably want to teach me a clear lesson: That is exactly what happens when you become careless out of comfort or joy of life. That's how it was years ago when an experienced skater, with whom I had had a little talk before the tour, had started out on an inline skating tour along the Rhine river without a helmet (but with the other protectors) because of the nice weather. At the only small hill and the subsequent small downhill he got into a spin and fell. The ambulance came, the tour continued. As we learned later, he did not survive it (head on curb). 'Usually, he always drove with a helmet' friends wrote afterwards. Usually.

The second thought from this bee lesson:
So far it has not hit me, I've kept myself in self-isolation as much as possible or kept my distance.
After all the Corona weeks, the inconvenience with the everyday mask, the distance rules, etc., we are sometimes tired of this, mentally. And in the current discussions about loosening restrictions, you catch yourself behaving 'as before' in some situations, especially on such a happy sunny day; at least before you notice it. Or that - sometimes with concern, but tacitly - you accept that the person opposite comes too close without a mask.
The brain sometimes plays along badly with us : You feel more protected when you wear the mask yourself, even though we have learned that it is mainly the other person whom I mainly protect with the mask (which also is a positive feeling) :-))

And in such a situation we are vulnerable to the virus. In contrast to the bees, which are immediately visible and, above all, immediately noticeable (and in my case without any after-effects), Corona is much worse. I don't write this because you read it in the news every day. Unfortunately, I had to get to know it more specifically in my wider family in different degrees.

'Don't tempt fate' they say. Even if we would like to challenge it after this long time - consciously or without thinking or simply out of joie de vivre and the urge for supposed normality. So that you don't have to hear afterwards (especially from yourself) 'Actually, I always followed the regulations and precautionary measures'. Actually.

By the way, the irony (or maybe the bee colonies agreed :-)) was that all other colonies and offshoots on our apiary were absolutely peaceful when they were inspected on that day and it really wasn’t necessary to use a veil. Really. We will never find out whether that would have been the case. I will wear the veil again in the future. And always put on the skater helmet anyway.

Normally, I should now wish you a nice weekend. Normally.
But I'll do it anyway. :-). From a safe digital distance and without a mask or veil.
So have a nice weekend - with many positive thoughts.
Stay healthy.