North Salmon Creek — A swarm of wayward honey bees went from scary to fascinating in short order last week thanks to the knowledge and skill of an amateur beekeeper.
The beekeeper, alerted after a neighbor called a honey shop for suggestions on how to deal with the swarm, gently shook the queen bee and many of her followers into a waiting bee box.
Over the course of the next hour, the rest of the bees calmly followed the queen inside — unconcerned by the swarm of humans trying to capture the moment on smartphones and tablets.
Once darkness fell, the box and the bees were relocated to a better location near a raspberry field, and neighborhood kids pondered how to turn the experience into their next science class assignment.