The Bee Hive

So here is the story for those following along:

Christmas morning I found a tiny hole in the ceiling of our bedroom and some mouse droppings on the floor behind a chair (below the hole). Then I got the flu and felt awful for a week. Then I started to hear the mouse in the night and I recovered from death's door. We made it to the store for a live trap because I taught biology and I'm a science nerd and the thought of a mouse getting its neck snapped in my bedroom made me sad. Don't judge me.

We opened up the ceiling expecting to find a nest and place the trap. That's when we discovered the monster hive that must have been in the ceiling for YEARS. (I don't know how bees or hives work, but I know this took a while.) It's huge y'all. It is at least a couple feet wide, deep, and high. 

I thought it was an old, dormant  hive - we haven't had any bee issues or heard any buzzing (and the mouse had been eating it). Then we started pulling some of it out and honey started running everywhere (see Facebook video). Then the bees started swarming and we realized we were in WAY OVER our heads. Now we have cardboard on the ceiling and we're contacting local beekeepers. 

We also found out that everyone knows a beekeeper (except us...but I bet we'll get to know one). And we'll let the experts take it from here. 

However, if you're in the market for some local honey I have decided to go into business. (That's a joke - I don't want to be a beekeeper I have too many humans to keep alive.) 

Just so you fully understand my life right now  - while we were dealing with the bees our youngest found nail polish and nail polish remover and painted ALL the things and spilled all the remover. And then I got a nosebleed. And this is how my year has started off. 

I am trying to see the silver lining:

1. We don't have snakes in our ceiling. 

2. No one else got the flu (just me)

3. Beekeepers WANT this stuff and will come and get it for free.

4. The mouse was (slowly) helping us clean this sucker out.

5. There was so much polish remover spilled that all of the nail polish came out of the carpet. 

6. She didn't drink the polish remover!!!

6. My nose quit bleeding....

And that's all I've got so far, but I am going to keep working on this thankfulness list...I have a feeling that I'm going to need it.