Friend, Homeowner, and I had worked for several hours on the
day before, trying to get a hive of bees that had taken up residence in Homeowner’s
rafters. We had ripped apart the soffit
of his house, sucked up a ton of bees, and installed the honeycomb and bees in
a new hive that Friend could manage. All
that was left was to hope that we had captured the queen and that the remainder
of the bees had left the building, and were now making a new home for the queen
and her brood.
The question was, is the Queen still in the rafters, or did
we suck her up into the vacuum?
We showed up the next afternoon at Homeowner’s house. I had wanted the bees in the rafter to crawl
out of the rafters and fly into the hive we’d placed under their former
home. Unfortunately, most of the bees
had left the hive and had flown back into the house.
So, I vacuumed some more.
Friend was like Scotty on the Enterprise in Star Trek: “We need more suction, Captain!” Friend pulled several things off of my vacuum
in the belief it would help, including the filter.
I was down to the last cluster of bees when the vacuum quit
sucking. Friend checked, and the motor
was full of bee guts. Since there was no
filter to keep the vacuum from sucking up the bees, the motor had torn apart
the bees and let their little bee guts clog up the works!
It was getting dark by this time, and we could no longer see
what we were doing. We poured the bees that
had survived back into the hive and put a screen across the front so they
couldn’t abscond overnight.
Friend and Homeowner would not be available until late the
next day, a Sunday. Friend wanted to
wait until after church to take his hive to its new home on his Dad’s
property. Friend called me Sunday
afternoon to tell me most of the bees were dead. I suspected they died from the trauma of
getting vacuumed up twice. He thought it
was because it had become too hot in the hive.
We were probably both right.
Friend took the surviving bees to his dad’s place out in the
country. Later in the day, he called to
let me know there was a fire ant problem.
He was going to put down some fire ant poison. The next morning I got a call from
Friend. His Dad’s neighbor was
complaining about a swarm of bees in a tree on his property. Friend had told his dad they couldn’t be his
bees. I asked if he was sure they
weren’t his bees. He assured me the
swarm was too big to be his bees, but he was going to go back and capture the
swarm, anyway. Friend had already asked
Homeowner to build him an extra hive. So
now he had something to put in his new hive.
The following morning, we showed up to vacuum up any bees that
might be lingering. I didn’t expect to
find any bees. I was right, the bees had
enough of our antics and moved out of the home.
While talking things over, Friend got a call from his
Dad. The fire ants had taken over the
hive. There were no bees left in the box. So now Friend had two hives and no bees. He decided to drive to his dad’s property to
retrieve the swarm. What he didn’t
realize was that the swarm was 40’ up a tree.
He didn’t get the bees. I didn’t
know trees grew 40’ high in South Texas.
I’m pretty sure they were his bees, and we had caught the
queen. She was just smarter than we
were. Homeowner was happy to have the
bees removed and that the family had fresh local honey to enjoy. Friend was frustrated because he now owned
two hives, but had no bees. I was disappointed that we had not managed to save
the colony. Despite my suspicion that
the bees swarmed into the neighbor’s yard, I don’t know for sure what happened
to them. That is probably more my
fantasy than the reality. It is possible
that we killed the colony.
We all learned from the experience. There was satisfaction in trying to solve the
puzzle of the best way to remove the bees without excessive damage to the house
or the bees. Despite losing the colony,
the adventure was exciting. We worked as
a team to eliminate a problem Homeowner had.
And that was really the number one priority. Saving the colony was secondary. If we had managed that piece of the puzzle, I
probably would have gotten myself in trouble by offering my bee swarm removal
services to others.
We all got to experience something new. The bees were amazingly calm. The yard was alive with the sound of flying,
buzzing bees. The bees were landing on
us and staring in at us through our veils.
We all were wearing protective equipment, and no humans got stung. We were destroying their home, and there was
little the bees could do about it. Sadly,
Homeowner’s dog was stung multiple times as the dog was the only available
target. Dog had to be taken to the vet
and treated for her injuries. Fortunately,
Dog survived and is doing well.
An
update:
Remember that I had agreed to tear apart, but not
rebuild? And remember how I was assured
that would not be a problem, because both Friend and Homeowner were experts in
the rebuilding field? Well, I ran into
Homeowner’s wife recently. She was happy
to see me, which was a relief. It was
also a surprise considering that the corner of her house we had destroyed had
not yet been repaired.
Yes, the bees were smarter than I. They are also much better carpenters. I imagine in my mind that the swarm that left
Friend’s hive are now living in a nice cozy attic they found near Friend’s
father’s property. I can see them
buzzing in and out of a tiny hole in the soffit, and deep inside there is precisely
built eight sided cells housing the new eggs and larvae, with nectar and pollen
stored nearby. The comb is all lined up
in neat rows, attached to the underside of the room. The queen is busily laying eggs and a new
generation of bees are out pollinating the farmer’s crops.
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