This is what all the work is for. We pulled about 30 pounds of honey. This is from two hives we have been working with for over a year.
This is what it’s for
All posts by Ken Harmeyer
Kind of small
The woman called and said there were a bunch of bees in a Starfruit tree in her back yard. I gave her the standard answer that they would leave between 3 and 5 pm, if they didn’t call back. She called back, when we got there we saw the very small group had built comb and looked like they were planning on staying. We scraped off the comb from the branch and everyone just jumped right in.
Rubbish
The people were very calm when they called. They saw the bees swarm around the rubbish can and thought is was interesting. I wasn’t sure what I would find when I opened it up, but found it was around the rim. That was a surprise, every time I have opened up a rubbish can they have been on the lid. I scooped them into the nuc and waited. They weren’t trying to sting me, they just wanted to get to the queen. After a few minutes most of them were in the box.
Let’s go boating
The guy said he had bees in his boat. What he didn’t say was that the boat has been sitting since 1996. But he was a good neighbor, he wanted the bees removed because he was afraid his neighbors kids would get stung. We had to cut open the side of the boat. There was lots of brood and very wet honey.
Meter Reader
Board of Water Supply calls us for bees in the meter boxes. When we pulled up we saw they had spray painted on the grass so we couldn’t miss the bees. Of course all we had to do was find the meter box and we were in business. We had to park across the street from them and it was a fairly busy street. We got it done and everyone was happy.
Ingenuity
|When you catch swarms sometimes you have to use the brain God gave you. The sliding glass door is about 10 feet up. The bees are another 7-8 feet up. My ladder only goes to 13 feet. So I had to stand very near the top. Even then I couldn’t reach the bees, too I got a pole and a bucket and scooped them in with a small rake.
Danger!
The construction company working on the rail called me. They had bees under an office trailer.. When I got there I saw they had taped off the whole trailer. I got under the thing and saw where the bees were. I put them in the nuc, waited a few minutes for most of them to get in the box. It went like clockwork
We’ve been working on the rail
Honolulu has been working on a rail project. It won’t be done anytime soon. I got a call to remove bees from under an office trailer the construction company uses. Then the next week I got a call from them to remove a hive from a concrete form. For reference my wife is 5′ 2″ so you can see the area where the bees are is WAY up there. I used a lift to get me up to the spot, but the thing kept swaying back and forth. i don’t like heights anyway and that didn’t help. There wasn’t much comb for the amount of bees, but they all came nicely.
In hot water
This guy called last week, I gave him a price and he said he would look around. He kept calling me, he got me confused with other people he called. I told him it was fate. We did the removal on July 4th, and there were no fireworks. The bees had built in a corner of the hot water tank shed. After the removal I looked inside and saw that the builders had put foam all around the edge. That guy was thinking!
Do it again
About 3 years ago we were called for a job in a garage. There were shelves packed with stuff right where we had to work. We told them they had to move the shelves and stuff so we could do the removal. They didn’t and we couldn’t do a proper job. They called back not too long ago and said they really had to get the bees out. They had called some other companies, but they didn’t want the job. I told him he had to move the shelves and stuff again. I also told him that if the stuff wasn’t moved we would just go home. We got there and the stuff was moved. We cut open the ceiling and found lots of comb. The removal went smoothly and all the bees are gone. If he would have moved the stuff the first time he wouldn’t have had to pay twice.