Thanks to former council member, and source of many of my better-news brand of super-P'Town-scoops, the intrepid Karen Nau, for sending me over this bee-guiling little missive via email to share.

Karen's Mum, for those not in the know is Petaluma's Bee Lady, the magnificent Ettamarie Peterson. Ettamarie is no stranger to SOS calls from the local boys in blue. It appears that yesterday's particular police request for help resulted in Ettamarie attracting quite an entourage of beekeeper cheerleaders down by the Petaluma Library.

To quote the beelady herself:"I had a visit from one of our new beekeepers, Fumi Christensen. While I was showing her some bee things and the booming observation hive, the Petaluma Police Dept. called. They wanted me to come for a swarm somewhere around the Petaluma Library! Fumi's eyes lit up! She was thrilled when I invited her to come along."

"It turned out to be a classic, nice swarm hanging under a picnic table, a piece-of-cake swarm!" says Ettamarie. "Fumi does not suit up because her interest in bees is apitherapy for her arthritis, which she has proof of as working. After we got the bees going into the box, Fumi asked if she could take some and whipped out a tea infuser that looks like two spoons hooked together and a little mesh sachet bag. She neatly trapped a few bees and transferred them into the bag."

It appears that the Beelady in training lives in SR so Ettamarie has encouraged her to put her contact information on cards and give it to her neighborhood police and fire departments for swarm calls.

"She said she will call someone to help her, at least at first. She has the fever now!" says Ettamarie.

"One of the homeless (at least they looked that way) folks that were hanging out nearby told us he used to keep bees. He enjoyed telling his friends about bees and why they swarmed. Another very old guy told me that his great grandpa had bees back on the family farm in Kansas and the old bee tree there is still active. He blessed me several times for giving the bees a home," says Ettamarie.

The bees will go to one of the Bee Lady's 4-H girls. "We did spot the bee tree in the library park," says Ettamarie. "I have been called to this spot a few times and suspected a bee tree was near. The guy who started me in beekeeping lived across the street and his hives swarmed regularly, the neighbors have told me. That was 16 years ago!"