How long can a dead bee keep a family happy?

A few days ago Mike was outside playing with the girls and I was wasting time being productive inside reading blogs cleaning, of course. I went out to find Mike with Naomi and Bernadette hunched over a little red shovel while he talked in a high pitched voice. They were more intensely entertained than I have ever seen them (except during certain Disney movies, but that says a lot).

I asked what was going on and Naomi explained that they were looking at Quincy the bee, then Quincy spoke, or Mike spoke for Quincy, and Naomi talked back to him like they were long time friends. Naomi requested several times that we get a jar to keep him in, I figured as far as pets go, a dead bee would be the most low maintenance, but Mike wasn't as in to his idea.

But the girls loved Quincy. Every time we went outside they would go over to the little red shovel where he sat and Bernadette would make very intense curious faces at him and Naomi would chat for a long time with him. It was even better when Mike was there, just see for yourself:
Then yesterday, the inevitable happened, we had to send Quincy home (it was only a matter of time before one of the girls ate him). Mike threw him somewhere and said he was "flying away back to his family". No sooner had the girls and Mike sent Quincy home, when Naomi came into the house, sat down in the at her xylophone in the playroom, and sang a song for him:

"Quincy we love you, Quincy we miss you, Quincy come back to us!" 

Soon after the tribute was sung, Quincy called on Naomi's fake cell phone to give an update of how things were going, which softened the blow of his departure immensly.

So the answer to the title question is: at least 2 1/2 days.