Home is where you hang your ... Queen.
Rescue724 - Who else makes free house calls for pest removal?
Bob Travis, a bee keeper hailing from New Wilmington, PA, became my best friend when he pulled into the drive in his gray pickup at 11:15am, just as the bees were beginning to increase their activity level. In his heavy cotton white jumpsuit and matching zippered screen-hood, Bob wasn't too worried about fashion, but he was taking some basic precautions. It was clear he'd done this awhile--for forty years, actually--as he left his hands gloveless. "So I don't drop anything and get them angry," he explained.
Smoke 'em if you got em
Bob took time to take a quick look at the situation and then set to work prepping his smoker filled with Norway pine needles and pulling out his hive to receive the bees. "They only bother you if you try to catch them," Bob commented. Sounded like easy advice to follow; I had no interest in trying to 'catch' a few thousand bees, actually. Good luck there, Bob.
The most delicate part of the operation was the "great shake". Bob cut off the few branches involved from the lilac tree and then proceeded to whack them deliberately and sternly against the top of his hive. Were I a bee, I would have taken great offense at this point. However, none of the pine-needle-smoking Apoideas chose to give him the slightest hassle about his rough treatment. Lucky Bob, but luckier me, since it was at that very moment after taking about 8 pictures of him slapping the bees across the wood inserts that I realized that I had no cool spacesuit on! Here I was standing within 5 feet of a man thwacking over 10,000 bees upside the thorax, and I was somehow lost in photojournalistic oblivion.
Bob assured me I was fine.
I backed up a bit.
On the road again...
The most delicate part of the operation was the "great shake". Bob cut off the few branches involved from the lilac tree and then proceeded to whack them deliberately and sternly against the top of his hive. Were I a bee, I would have taken great offense at this point. However, none of the pine-needle-smoking Apoideas chose to give him the slightest hassle about his rough treatment. Lucky Bob, but luckier me, since it was at that very moment after taking about 8 pictures of him slapping the bees across the wood inserts that I realized that I had no cool spacesuit on! Here I was standing within 5 feet of a man thwacking over 10,000 bees upside the thorax, and I was somehow lost in photojournalistic oblivion.
Bob assured me I was fine.
I backed up a bit.
On the road again...
He finished in only a few minutes and then secured a top to the hive, and located a lid to put on the hive in the back of his truck. He also decided he would take the branches with him, in case the queen was still clinging there. If the queen was not in the hive, after he got home and set it out, all 15-20,000 bees would disperse and die within days as they flew around, got exhausted and eventually collapsed, realizing they'd lost all meaning in their lives. Wow, that's devotion, eh? Kinda reminds me of a Despair.com poster.
We've only got a hundred or so laggard bees still lost and hanging out around the bush here yet. They will slowly die in the next day or so as they realize their family has moved out and left them behind. Bummer dudes.
Enjoy the pics. Most of the bees are on their way to a new home.
Mike Compeau
mike.compeau@compeau.net
www.twitter.com/mikecompeau
We've only got a hundred or so laggard bees still lost and hanging out around the bush here yet. They will slowly die in the next day or so as they realize their family has moved out and left them behind. Bummer dudes.
Enjoy the pics. Most of the bees are on their way to a new home.
Mike Compeau
mike.compeau@compeau.net
www.twitter.com/mikecompeau
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