For a week or so in August, the box was buzzing for a reason other than our collective caffeine consumption. We attracted a small swarm of roughly 100 honey bees!
It started off with just a few fuzzy buzzers checking out what was on offer. After a day or two, they decided we had a fantastic selection - a buffet of sugar syrups and, not to mention, a plethora of lovely cakes. By day three, word about Coffee Club’s sugary treat selection had spread amongst the hive, and we had around 100 bees come to the box.
At this point, Mabel had to shut up shop for the day for obvious reasons. We then put a POA in place to remove all evidence of anything remotely sweet from the box. Syrups were decanted into small bottles and stored in the fridge, no cake was to be on display and if it was a pastry day they were to be pre-bagged and labelled.
We read that it could take several days for them to stop popping by. So, we played the waiting game, and sure enough, day by day, fewer and fewer came. It took a total of eight days before we had our first bee-free day. I can confirm the full syrup buffet has now returned and the cakes are back on display.
The lovely thing is that it was a great conversation starter, prompted by the lack of cake display or Mabel’s ‘Bee-ware’ signage all week strangers were sharing facts and knowledge to big up the bees. And so despite some stressful moments, the experience brought a lot of joy and love for our buzzy mates.