You know what stings worse than a bee? Getting robbed by a bee.
As summer changes into fall, so-called “robber bees” invade hives in an effort to steal honey due to dwindling resources. That’s what a Canadian beekeeper named Christine McDonald has been dealing with.
McDonald tells the CBC that bees have swarmed her apiary in British Columbia, slipping through cracks in her shop’s door.
“I think that’s the most panicked I have felt,” McDonald says. “There’s thousands of bees, I don’t know where they’re coming from, and I need to protect all of the honey.”
McDonald addressed the problem by taping the door shut and “sacrificing” her bathroom, where she trapped and released the robber bees by luring them in with light. After about five days, the bees finally gave up their heist.
“I think they’ve learned that, nope, there’s no more food here. We can’t get in,” McDonald says.
Perhaps the bees will try the tactic of their great enemy, Winnie-the-Pooh, and pretend to be a little back rain cloud the next time they try to steal honey.