My husband works for SMUD...Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Yesterday, out at Rancho Seco, he discovered a "hunka" bees as big as a basketball. That's how he described it to me. He wanted to save the bees...they couldn't stay where they were as people kinda needed to access that area...in the worst way sometimes.
He called the ghostbuster of bee rescue, Uncle Jer. Dave came home with two bottles of blackberry honey..which he said must have cost SMUD about 200 bucks each.
Uncle Jer said that the hive just got too large..and the bee's elected another Queen Bee..and when she left she took half of the workforce with her, therefore the hunka bee's appeared. There is not enough room for two Queen's in the nest...well, unless they are gay. That's a whole 'nother ball of bee wax...which I am fully supportive of.
So, Dave said it was very cool to watch Uncle Jer work. He put his beehive under the hunka and just wiped them into this honey comb laden paradise of a box. They stayed put...Honey Queen was happy to have a home with her harem of busy bees.
Ya know, now that Ranch Seco is nearly a ghost town, all kinds of animals are moving in out there. A raccoon lives in the turbine building and eats out of the dumpsters...he falls off due to his bulbousness. Bunny rabbits come and go..in and out of the buildings..not one bit afraid of the few employees left out there. It's kinda like that show "Life After People".....
The 5th floor conference room had a fancy table in it...but pigeons have taken over and there is shit all over the fancy table now. Squirrels are often escorted out of the building.. and buzzards circle overhead. Due to the double security fence, predators cannot get in...so all the animals living "at the ranch" are snug as bugs in rugs.
Hundreds of Mud Swallows and their nests had to be escorted carefully off of the top of the old reactor building... before the crane came in.
There used to be 2500 employees out there...now, there are 25...and lot's of animals but no more bees. They've been saved. Thanks for the honey, honey!
4 comments:
That bee story is very cool. The hive would have scared me too much to get near it but I'm always amaze at folks that have a way with bees and can make them do things-- like more to a new hive. Amazing.
jj
Very interesting - both about the bees and Rancho Seco - have you been to the Howard Ranch Nature Trail? I'll bet the blackberry honey is great! ~ Marcia
Marcia..yes on the nature trail. Rancho Seco has a beautiful lake and park out there as well. They have a fishing derby every year. Dave's worked out there for over 25 years.
He has spent the last 10 years helping to deconstruct the plant. I remember him coming home talking about taking the fuel rods out of the pools.
So..does he glow in the dark? Marcia
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