I need everyone to know that bees sleep all curled up <3 They don't have eyelids to close so they enter a state of torpor with slowed metabolism, their antennae droop down and they fold their legs under their bodies. If they're inside the hive they sleep all clustered together or alone inside the cells, and if they're outside they usually rest inside flowers. They can topple over sometimes, so they tend to interlock their legs if they're sleeping together.
Some bumblebees feeding on globe thistles. These are some of my favourite bee photos I've taken.
The second two photos are buff-tailed bumblebees, while the first might be some type of cuckoo bee. Before writing this post and noticing that bee only had one yellow stripe, I didn't really know anything about cuckoo bees. They're known as 'cleptoparasites', meaning that they take over the nests of other bees, like cuckoos do. Their queens kill the original queen and the original worker bees rear her eggs. There are several kinda of cuckoo bee, which can be hard to identify because they mimic their hosts. This one might be a vestal cuckoo bee, which mimic buff-tailed bumblebees.
Author’s note: Day 18 of June of Doom! Masterlist here. I hope you enjoy~ Thank you to @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan for allowing me to borrow her OC, Hura!
Warnings: mentioned bad habits, bees, swarming bees, please ask me to tag something if I’ve missed it!
Summary: Hura is woken up with a 2am wake up call, from his dear brother, Darsas
"Hura... I need your help with something." Darsas explained, his voice low and sheepish. It was two in the morning, and the other was speaking very quietly into his vox.
No good news ever came from a vox-call at this time of night. Hura suppressed an irritated sigh or a tired groan as he slowly untangled himself from his beloved Mouse, writing her a note in case he did not return before she woke up, so that she wouldn't worry about where it was that he had vanished off to. "Alright, what is it? Where are you?"
"Ah... Well... You see, it would be easier to explain everything if you came to my location, actually." Darsas responds.
Hura sighed and activated the ability that his armor had that let him know where all of his brothers were within a several hundred mile radius. It was an augment specific to Apothecaries that most of them had. It made tracking down injured idiot brothers much easier. "I am on my way. I will ask a more pertinent question: what did you do this time?"
"Me? I haven't done anything I wasn't supposed to." Darsas protests, clearly trying to come off as an innocent.
Which Hura did not trust for even a fraction of a moment. "Darsas. I cannot help you effectively if you are not honest with me. What sort of issue am I walking into? Do I need to bring additional back up? A shovel? Torglite? A flame thrower?"
"No, no flame throwers! That was only what you referred to as necessary once, and that was due to some... Ah... I suppose... Overenthusiastic teaching on my part, and extra energy by young Batsy? We have been managing much more safely after that incident."
This did not fill him with confidence "I stand corrected. What did you and Batsy do?"
"I... Well... I... This particular... I require your help and I promise that the lad is not involved in this. At least, I'm fairly sure that he isn't." Darsas sputters in protest.
Hura was moving faster now, and had grabbed a full emergency kit with some single use wards and cleansing arrays, in case whatever this was, was warp based. He detested using the blasted things, but better he cleanse the area, than Darsas get hunted down by the grey horrors that had decided to take up residence somewhere near Gannet Point from what he could discern of their movements. Not that Hura was monitoring them in ways that could be construed as stalking. “I am coming. Please do not move, unless that will make the situation you have found yourself in worse.”
“… It isn’t a bad situation. I promise!” Darsas says, as if that is supposed to make him feel better. It does not, and instead just worries him further. His brother’s sense of danger and concern for loss of life and limb - or rather the significant reduction in quality of life was never something that Darsas was very good at gauging. Or noticing for that matter.
“I am nearly there, and I shall see what you’ve gotten yourself… Into… This time… Oh, hallo, little ones.” Hura cooed as he rounded the last corner and stopped dead in his tracks as he took in the scene before him.
Darsas, laying on his back in the middle of carefully maintained grass that was part of one of the many parks that were in and around Gannet point. He was surrounded by many buzzing bees, some of whom were swarming around him. “Hallo Hura. My little friends are telling me all about their previous keeper. They weren’t terribly good at it, and the hive became honey-bound, so they left. Their queen landed on me late last night, and they’ve been searching for a suitable spot to start re-building their hive structures.”
“Have you told them that you don’t want them to swarm you? You know that bees get territorial while they are swarming, as that is one of the most vulnerable times for their queen and the hive as a whole.” Hura sighs, already typing a message requisitioning one of the other bee-keeping brothers of theirs to come and help Darsas properly re-home the bees.
“Yes, I did. And they promise to continue to move on, they just needed some time to rest and as I am a friend to all small, buzzing, crawling insects, they knew that I am a safe spot to perch on. I asked you to come here to help me sing them little hymns of growth and safety as they find their new hearth and home.” Darsas answers cheerfully.
"How long have you been like this?" Hura asks, doing his best not to scold his brother - or place his palm to his face - or both.
Darsas pouts at his brother and answers "Only for a couple of hours, at most. I promise. I hadn't realized what they were doing until shortly before I called you. I think they wish to try and hive around me. While I am flattered and would make an excellent hive guard, I am too mobile for them to be comfortable long term. Which I explained to these lovely bees, and they have agreed to go with a proper keeper. Which I assume that you have arranged for, before coming here?"
Hura grumbles under his breath and answers "Yes I have. The keeper should be arriving any moment now."
Surely enough, within the next couple of minutes, a tall, gangly human in protective equipment approaches the two of them, his bonded - a loyalist brother - carries the synthetic hive. "Hello, I... Wow. I wasn't entirely sure by what you meant by one of your brohters being swarmed and came armed with smoke, but wow. I've never seen this before. It's remarkable."
"Why thank you, it is a pleasure to meet both of you. My little friends are ready to move." Darsas trills out, a soft buzzing quality to the under-tones of his voice. He extended a bee-covered palm. The drones and attendants slowly left his upwards facing palm, revealing the queen, who was lounging comfortably in the middle of his palm. "Here is her tiny majesty. Where would you like her to go?"
"I... Oh wow. There she is. Alive and in good shape too. That's really remarkable. I've never seen bees do that before." The human murmurs, genuinely fascinated by the unprecedented behavior in bees that he had seen. "... Wait, are you implying that you can understand bees?"
"And other insects, both those with wings and those without, yes. It is only of many little blessings I have been given. My little friends don't always listen to me or take my advice, but that's only to be expected. Not all of one's friends will always listen to your advice after all." Darsas answers, a pleasant smile appearing on his face as he leans a little into the human's personal space, offering out the queen to him "Where would you like her to go?"
"I. Uhm. Ah. This little box works well." The human stammered a little, taken aback by all of this. It was already a very strange hour, but this morning had gotten even stranger much faster than he was expecting.
Darsas buzzed and trilled a little, and the queen willingly crawled off of his hand and into the little queen box. He sealed the top of it, making sure it was on it's side, so that she wouldn't drown if the sugar mixture melted. He attached it to one of the frames, and the hive settles into the bee box with no struggle or difficulty.
"That was the easiest time I've ever had getting a swarm of bees to come to a synthetic box, ever. I don't suppose that you'd be willing to help me out on occasion?" The human asked, a mixture of wistful and deeply stunned. "Ah! I've been rude. I am Marcus, and this is my bonded, Endolin."
"A pleasure to meet you both, and I would be willing to help out from time to time." Darsas answers earnestly, before informing the other of his vox-number "If you are having trouble or there is danger, please cal me and I shall come and assist if I am able." He promises earnestly.
"Again, thank you. I'm going to get these beauties home." Marcus answered with an eager grin. Endolin is holding the bee box and sends a dark glare Darsas' way when his human isn't looking.
"Good luck and safe travels! Oh, if I could bother you for a cup of the honey and some of the wax they produce, I would be grateful. My bonded, Honey, likes well. Honey, quite a bit and I can make a number of things out of the wax." Darsas hummed, immensely entertained and not in the least bit threatening by the scowling younger brother.
"Hmm? Oh, absolutely. It might take a little while, is that okay?" The human asked, a note of hesitation in his voice.
"I'm not expecting it immediately, as long as it comes to me, I will be satisfied." Darsas hums.
The human nods - his bonded loyalist still glaring at them both as the two of them leave. Darsas is deeply amused by the irritated glaring, but he also knows that being accused of deliberately antagonizing the younger marine will not be a good look for him, so all he says is "I am grateful to you both for helping me with the bees."
The loyalist brother grunts, though his glare softened ever so slightly, so Darsas will take it.
Marcus answered a cheerful "You're welcome! It's also my job to respond to these kinds of issues, and I am on night shift because I like the quiet, so don't worry about calling me at odd hours of the night or really early morning. If this happens again."
"I will keep that in mind, thank you very much." Darsas answers with a grin, waving a little as the two left.
Hura is using his auspex to check him over and grumbles "Alright. You are in good condition. I am going back to bed to cuddle my bonded, and I suggest you do the same."
"Oh I would, but Honey has traveled out of the province due to complications with her latest case, and I was told not to follow her there and I am trying to obey her wishes." Darsas answered, a little bit of a pout on his face.
The apothecary gives his brother a consoling pat on the shoulder "I see. I wish you a good rest." And he heads off, back to his bonded to cuddle and rest next to.
Darsas sighs as he does make his way back home, settling into bed, curling around his beloved's favorite pillow, her scent still lingering there as he drifted off into slumber.
