A giant bee's nest

Check out the size of this thing! We stopped using the shed since we discovered it in there mid-summer. It would have cost us $140 to have it removed, so we left it there and moved the tractor into the garage. And we've been patiently waiting for it to get cold enough for the bees to cease being a threat.

Look at the beautiful texture on this thing:

I think I had more fun cutting it open than the boys did. Actually, B and I were really enraptured by the thing. The boys showed some interest, and enjoyed the cutting it up part, but nowhere near as much as I did.

The dozens of bees were still alive in there, but very much groggy from the cold, so they were no longer a threat. It was interesting to just look at their behavior in this state.

We also had the opportunity to see larva; it does not have wings or legs but looks like a small worm. Typically it stays in its cell until it urns into a pupa, which we also got to see. It was really cool to see them all lined up in their cells the way we've only see in books before. Here is the one we had handy and looked through after we saw all this cool stuff, and wanted to know more about everything we had seen!
We are so glad we did without our shed for a couple of months, and didn't spend the money to rid ourselves of this thing, because doing it ourselves was very cool! We even saved several pieces to bring inside and display.

Remember - you can click on any of the photos to see them up close.