The Beekeeper Mystery Read online

  “The flyers,” said Benny, licking fudge from his fingers. “Someone drew on them.”

  “Who would want to hurt Laura’s business?” asked Violet.

  “Zelda’s not very friendly,” Jessie said. “And Laura said she seems jealous of us.”

  “But would she really hurt Laura? After all, Laura’s been teaching her,” Henry said as he reached for another piece of fudge.

  “Walt doesn’t seem to like us either,” said Benny.

  Violet patted her little brother’s arm. “It’s not us,” she said. “Walt’s just not used to having kids around.”

  When they finished the fudge, Benny set the plate on the arm of his chair. A few crumbs were left. A bee buzzed over and landed on the plate. The children watched the bee check a tiny crumb with its front legs. It played with the crumb awhile. Slowly, Benny slid the tip of his finger onto the plate. The bee looked over. It walked to Benny’s finger and climbed on. Benny held his breath. He didn’t dare move. He didn’t want to frighten the bee. The bee seemed to be tasting Benny’s finger. After a while, it flew away.

  Benny jumped up, running around the chairs. “Did you see that? A real live bee climbed on my finger!”

  “It was great how you kept so still,” said Henry.

  “What did it feel like?” Jessie asked.

  Benny giggled. “It kind of tickled,” he said.

  Laura’s red truck pulled up to the side of the gift shop. “We’re over here,” called Jessie, waving. Laura came to join them.

  “Did you get the burr combs out of the super?” asked Henry.

  Laura blew out a long stream of air. “It wasn’t easy,” she said. “Those bees wanted the burr combs to stay where they were.” She sat on the grass.

  “What did you do?” asked Violet.

  “I pried out those messy burr honeycombs and pressed them into four new frames. Sort of the way you press clay into a mold.” Laura said.

  “Were the bees angry?” asked Jessie.

  “They were a little upset with me,” said Laura. “But I calmed them with the smoker and worked as fast as I could. When I finished, the four new frames fit right next to the other six.” Laura stood up. “What have you been up to?”

  They told her about organizing the storeroom. “I can’t believe how many things are made out of honey,” said Jessie.

  As they walked to the farmhouse, Violet handed Laura one of the ruined flyers. Laura’s eyes filled with tears at the flyer marked up with red ink. “Who would do this?” she asked. “Who doesn’t want children learning about bees?”

  Combing Honey, Brushing Bees

  A new stack of yellow flyers for Laura’s junior beekeeping class sat on the breakfast table the next morning. Violet had decorated the flyer with beautiful drawings of honeybees the night before. Then Laura printed lots of copies.

  As the children finished their pancakes, Laura came inside the house. “I took some flyers into town this morning,” she said. “I put them in the coffee shop, gas station, and grocery store, and I handed them out to people.” As she set her bag on the counter, the phone rang. “Hello?” she said. Suddenly Laura was writing as fast as she could. She hung up, grinning. “I just got my first students!” she said. “A dad saw the flyer. He signed up his daughter and son. He’s going to tell other parents about the class. Thank you, Violet.” She gave Violet a hug. “Your drawings made my flyer stand out.”

  After breakfast they put on their beekeeper’s gear. Laura, Walt, and the children climbed into Laura’s truck. “Zelda’s late,” said Laura. “Should we wait?”

  Walt ran a hand over his white hair. “People who are late,” grumbled the old farmer, “don’t respect other people’s time. Let’s go.”

  Laura turned the key. The old truck rattled to life. “Still,” she said, “it’s not like Zelda to be late.”

  Laura parked near the hives along the fence. Everyone got out of the truck. The children gathered around Laura. Bees buzzed everywhere, and Benny hoped Buzzy would land on his sleeve again. Walt lifted a white box out of the truck and handed it to Laura.

  “This is an empty super,” said Laura. She took off the lid so they could see there were no frames with honeycombs inside. “Today, we are movers. We’re moving a couple of frames out of each hive and into this super. We’re careful to leave enough honey for the bees to live on over the winter. Any questions?”

  “If we take frames out of the hives,” asked Jessie, “won’t that leave empty spaces? Won’t the bees start making burr combs?”

  “Great question,” said Laura. “As soon as you take a frame full of honeycomb out of the hive, you’ll put an empty frame in. Full frame out, empty frame in.”

  “Full frame out,” the children repeated, “empty frame in.”

  “Perfect!” said Laura. “Jessie and Violet, please carry this empty super over to the hives.”

  Walt went to the truck and started unloading ten empty frames. Henry picked up some and handed a couple to Benny. Walt grunted, as if surprised the children wanted to help. “Let me show you a secret,” said Walt. He pointed to a tiny, red dot in the corner of a frame. “I mark our frames so we can always tell they belong to Applewood. No one notices the red dot but us.” They carried the empty frames to the hives.

  “Let’s start with the blue hive,” said Laura. Henry walked to the hive and reached for the top box. “Whoa,” said Walt. “I better lift it. That super’s full of honey. It weighs around sixty pounds.”

  “I lifted it yesterday for—” Henry started to say.

  “I’m tellin’ you,” said Walt, “that’s way too heavy for you.”

  Henry didn’t argue.

  “Henry did lift it yesterday, Walt,” Laura said as she walked over.

  Walt stepped away. “It’s all yours,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. Henry gripped the super. Walt stared as Henry lifted the heavy box off the hive and set it on the bench. The old farmer didn’t say a word. But Henry saw a look of respect in his eyes.

  Laura took off the lid. Today ten frames were inside. “See those four nice, neat frames at the end?” asked Laura. “That’s where I put the burr honeycombs. Tidiness makes a beekeeper’s work much easier.”

  “Like we cleaned the storeroom to make Noah’s work easier,” said Benny.

  “Exactly,” said Laura. “Who’s ready to brush some bees?”

  “Brush bees?” asked Benny.

  Laura picked up a long, flat brush. It looked like the kind they used to brush snow off grandfather’s car. “We’ll use this to brush bees off the honeycombs,” said Laura.

  “Won’t that hurt the bees?” Violet asked.

  “No,” said Laura. “These bristles are as soft as paintbrushes. Watch.” Laura lifted a frame out of the super. Bees covered both sides. With quick gentle strokes, Laura brushed away the bees. She quickly set the bee-free frame into the white super and closed the lid.

  Laura picked up one of the new frames. “Benny,” she said, “please put this empty frame into the space where the old frame used to be.”

  Benny slid the frame down into the super. “Full frame out,” he said, “empty frame in.” Bees covered his gloves and walked on his bee suit. Benny looked for Buzzy, but all the bees looked like Buzzy.

  The children took turns brushing. They set the bee-free frames into the white box. They took just two or three frames from each hive. The rest of the honeycombs would give the bees enough honey to live on through the winter. It was Violet’s turn to brush the bees when Zelda’s shrill voice shattered the morning air. “You’re brushing too hard!” The tall woman hurried toward the startled children. “You’re hurting the bees.”

  Walt stepped in front of Zelda. “Leave the children be,” he said. His voice was quiet but firm. “So far they’re doing all right.”

  As the children worked, Zelda paced around them. “Humph,” she would say. Or she’d mutter, “That’s not how I would do it.” She stood next to Laura. “Have you taught the child
ren about swarms?” she asked.

  “No, I haven’t had time to—” Laura stopped. “Slow down, Benny,” she said, going to the young boy. “Slide that new frame in very slowly. Give the bees a chance to get out of your way.” She watched as he did it. “Good job.”

  Zelda followed Laura. “As I was saying,” said Zelda. “You should teach about why bees swarm and—”

  “Just a sec,” said Laura, hurrying to help Henry put another full frame into the white super.

  Zelda followed. “I’m afraid,” she told Laura, “a swarm of bees could attack my new hives. All my bees might leave and—”

  Laura turned to Zelda. “I really can’t talk right now,” she said. “My junior beekeeping class begins soon. I must learn the best way to teach children.”

  Finally, ten bee-free honeycombs filled the white super. Henry helped Walt lift the box onto the back of the truck. Walt covered the super with a green tarp. The tarp looked like the one the children used to make tents in their backyard. “Don’t want bees finding these honeycombs,” Walt said, pulling the tarp tight around the super. “They’ll throw themselves a super-duper honey-eating party.”

  Laura drove the red truck past the gift shop and parked in front of a long, metal building. “This is our workshop,” she said. “We’ll harvest the honey here this afternoon. We can leave the super in the truck until after lunch.”

  The hungry junior beekeepers raced back to the farmhouse to eat. A big box sat on the kitchen counter. EMPTY HONEY JARS was written on the side in Violet’s handwriting.

  “I asked Noah to bring in jars from the gift shop storeroom,” said Laura. “This afternoon we’ll fill them with our honey.” The top of the old box was missing. Laura reached in and lifted out a glass jar. “Wha—!”

  The jar was coated with black goo. She scraped the goo with her thumbnail and smelled it. “Blackstrap molasses,” Laura said. She took out the rest of the jars. Sticky molasses coated every single one. Laura’s shoulders slumped. “Walt left some old jars of molasses in the storeroom,” she said. “One of them must have leaked into this box. What a mess. I’ll go see if anything else is ruined.”

  The minute Laura left, Jessie filled the large kitchen sink with hot soapy water. Violet set the jars into the sink. It took the girls a lot of hard scrubbing and hot water to clean off the molasses. “Do you think Noah did this?” asked Violet. “There was no cover on the box. He must have noticed the molasses.”

  Jessie wiped her forehead with her sleeve. “He probably just grabbed the box labeled EMPTY HONEY JARS and never looked inside.”

  Henry and Benny picked up towels and began drying. “What about Zelda?” asked Benny, wiping a lid. “She was late this morning. She could have messed these up so it looked like we didn’t do a good job cleaning the storeroom.”

  “Or maybe,” said Henry, “this was just an accident. I was dusting around a lot of old stuff cluttering those high shelves. It was dark up there. I could have accidently knocked over some molasses while I was moving things around.”

  Walt banged into the kitchen. He seemed upset. “Where’s Laura?” he asked.

  “She’s at the gift shop,” said Violet. “Is something wrong?”

  “A leg broke off that old extractor,” he said.

  “The what?” asked Benny.

  Walt seemed surprised they didn’t know what it was. “The extractor,” he said. “It’s the machine that spins the honey out of a honeycomb.”

  The children looked at each other. They didn’t say anything. But each of them wondered if someone broke the leg off the extractor on purpose. Was this just one more thing someone did to stop Laura from harvesting her honey?

  Laura walked in and stared at the glass jars sparkling like new. “I can’t believe you cleaned them,” she said. “Thanks so much.” She noticed Walt’s long face. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Extractor’s broken,” Walt said. “Need to go to town to buy a new leg. We won’t have time to spin out the honey today.”

  “Darn,” said Laura. She looked at her hardworking crew. “How about we all go to town and buy a leg for the extractor. Then I’ll treat you all to ice cream.”

  “Yes!” said Benny.

  “And,” said Violet, “we can pass out more flyers.”

  Stolen!

  Early the next morning the children followed Laura to the farm’s workshop. Yesterday Laura had parked her red truck outside the metal building. Walt had tightened the tarp around the super to keep bees out of the honeycombs. Now the children would learn to harvest the honey.

  A rooster crowed as they walked past the gift shop. Dewdrops glistened on spiders’ webs. Songbirds warbled in trees. Far away, a train whistled. The air smelled of wildflowers and ripe peaches. Benny raced ahead to be first at the workshop door. He ran around to the front of the building. “The truck’s gone,” he called.

  “Very funny,” said Jessie.

  “I’m not joking!” yelled Benny.

  They ran to the front. The red truck and the honeycombs were gone. Henry thought about the key in the ignition. Could someone have stolen the truck? “Do a lot of people know you leave the key in the truck?” he asked Laura.

  Laura paced back and forth. “It’s not really a secret or anything,” she said.

  “Maybe Walt came to work early,” said Jessie. “Maybe he already moved the super inside.”

  Laura quickly unlocked the workshop door. The space was as big as a classroom. Tools hung from pegboards. Farm supplies were organized on shelves. Beekeeping supplies filled one end of the room. The white super with the ten honeycomb-filled frames wasn’t there.

  Henry noticed a jumble of odd-looking bikes in the far corner. “What are those?” he asked.

  “Oh,” said Laura. “Walt finds old broken bikes and takes them apart. He’ll pull a good wheel off one, a seat off another, and handlebars off another. He says it takes about six broken bikes to make one good one. Then he gives them away to kids who don’t have one.”

  “I thought Walt didn’t like kids,” said Benny.

  “It’s not that,” said Laura. “Walt’s afraid children will ruin or break something.”

  Henry rolled a bike into the middle of the workshop. It had a purple front fender, a red back fender, and an orange seat. The handlebars were rusty, and the peddles were two different sizes. Henry rode it around. “It feels pretty good,” he said. “Would Walt mind if we borrowed bikes to go look for the truck?”

  “I don’t think so,” said Laura. “I’ll ride with you.”

  “Let’s check the farm first,” said Henry. “Just in case Walt or Noah used the truck for something. If it’s not here, we can bike into town.”

  They sped past the vegetable garden and between tall rows of cornstalks. They circled around the pumpkin patch and under trees ripe with peaches. They kept biking until they reached the far end of the farm. Another farmhouse sat on the other side of the fence. Horses grazed in the pasture.

  “That’s Zelda’s farm,” said Laura.

  Benny raced ahead. He glimpsed something red. “I see it! I see the truck. It’s way over there behind that big tree.”

  They biked toward the truck. Suddenly Laura stuck her left hand straight down with her palm facing back. “STOP! STOP!” she yelled.

  They screeched to a halt. Up ahead Benny stopped too. “What’s wrong?” he called.

  “See that black cloud over the back of the truck?” asked Laura. A cloud the size of a soccer ball hovered over the truck. “That’s a swarm of bees.”

  “Are they dangerous?” asked Henry.

  “Actually,” said Laura, “honeybee swarms are usually calm. But I don’t want to get too close until we put on our gear.”

  “Why do bees swarm?” asked Jessie.

  “Usually because their hives get too crowded,” Laura said. “Half the bees may leave a hive. They’ll rest on a nearby branch until scout bees find a good place to make their new home.”

  Violet leaned
over her bike’s handlebars, staring at the big tree. “There’s a big, dark blob on that low branch,” she said.

  “Good eye,” said Laura. “That’s where most of the swarm is. Those bees are crowding around their queen to protect her.”

  A few more bees flew from the tree to the truck. “I can’t figure out who would leave my truck out here,” said Laura.

  A corner of the tarp fluttered in the breeze. “The tarp’s coming loose!” said Jessie, pointing to the back of the truck. “The bees could get into our honeycombs.”

  Laura wheeled her bike around. “We’ve got to get home and suit up,” she said. “We have to stop those bees from stealing our honey!”

  They raced back and made it to the workshop just as Walt and Noah arrived for work. Walt glared at them. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  They quickly told him about the truck being moved and the swarming bees. “We’re sorry we didn’t ask permission to borrow the bikes,” said Henry. “But you weren’t here, and it was an emergency.”

  “You did right,” said Walt. “What I don’t like is that someone moved our truck. Too many people around, lately. Hard to keep track of things.”

  Noah was listening as they talked about the swarm. His expression was twisted with fear. “If you bring the truck back over here, will the swarm follow?” he asked.

  Benny walked up and took his big hand. “Don’t worry,” said Benny. “I know how to be safe around bees. I’ll stay in the gift shop with you.”

  “Me too,” said Violet. “Laura asked me to decorate the store’s signs.”

  Laura, Henry, and Jessie put on their beekeeper gear and met Walt at his black pickup truck. Walt had his bee suit on too. Henry helped Walt lift four old, empty hive boxes into the back. Walt tossed a white bedsheet, a peach, the smoker, and a large straw basket into the truck bed. “We’re going to round up that swarm just like cowboys round up horses,” said Walt. “Give ’em a nice, new home.”

  By the time they reached the red truck, half the tarp had blown off. Bees buzzed around, trying to get to the honeycombs.