Aside from increasingly taxing pollination circuits, Varroa mites, and Colony Collapse Disorder, honey bees, unfortunately, also have to put up with morons. See, I recently received one of those "funny" viral emails that get forwarded endlessly, and it was ghastly. There were photos and a running commentary from a man who likes to grill out. Apparently, honey bees had constructed their honeycomb underneath the wooden shelf attached to his barbecue, and the bees had taken good advantage of the heavy plastic cover used to shield the grill from the elements. He writes, "I have known there are bees coming from under the cover, so I thought I'd kill them, obviously." (Obviously?) And, indeed, kill them he does -- with a cockroach-and-flea-killer bomb taped to the end of a rake. He positioned the chemical bomb under the bees, waited for it to go off, and, brave soul that he is, "Then I ran like the clappers." The result? A pile of dead bees about an inch thick.

As sad as that email made me, at least all isn't lost. Just this weekend, for instance, I was called out to help a carpenter remove a honey bee colony which had been living under the siding of a cabin in the woods. The operation went well, and now the bees are tucked safely away in my apiary. So, to the barbecue man -- and anyone else with a hive of bees in an inconvenient spot -- there is a better, more environmentally responsible way to go. Put down the poison, and pick up the phone. Call your local extension office, animal control department, or your state bee inspector to locate a beekeeper like me to rescue those bees. We are happy to house your uninvited guests.