The Birds & the BEES!!!

I just figured out that I never wrote a full bee post -- silly me!

Before the big day we knew there was a problem; honestly, how could we not. There were after all 60,000 bees living in the wall. They never stung us (Nate did get stung the day of the removal but that was a first and the bees were all worked up). We were afraid they would sting us, mainly Brixton. Also, we couldn't work on parts of our garden without getting too close to them.

This is a picture from before the removal. There was a brick missing a long the top of the wall and that was their main entry point. One cool thing was the beekeeper could tell where in the wall they were living by how they flew in and out of that hole. When he said they were in the part of the wall you see to the right we were excited because if they had been to the left it would have been a more complicated removal.

 

Of course things like this don't happen at my house without Channel 4 joining in on the fun.

After an interview, the beekeepers got started. Thanks so much to Mike Clark with Clark Apiaries for carefully removing the bees. First, they smoked a few out...

They started carefully removing bricks (the stone on our house isn't cheap so they salvaged as much as they could). Here was the first look from the top looking down. There was about a 4-inch gap straight down the middle of the wall and that is where the bees had built their home.

This was our first look at a piece of the honeycomb. It was not used and was so cool. I meant to keep it but lost it somewhere in the excitement of the day.

Slowly he started removing the stone/bricks with a chisel. And slowly he began to reveal this.

It was funny to hear how excited Mike and his wife were about all the bees and the parts of the hive they kept finding. We on the otherhand, were in awe of what he found. 60,000 bees!! This is a look at a large portion of the hive covered in bees. He said it was a full hive and had likely been there for TWO years.

They removed each section of the hive and used a vaccuum type thing to suck them all in to a bucket. There were a lot more bees than they expected so they ended up taking a big plastic storage tub from my neighbor to help store the bees. Then after about 5 hours they were done. They just loaded the bees in to the back of their car and headed home to Stillwater.

At one point, I asked about how they were getting them home and they said they might put some in the backseat and just drive home with their beekeeper suits on. Can you imagine driving along the highway and seeing that?!?!

Here are the bees in their new home. Clark Apiaries work with a florist in Stillwater. They keep the bees at the place where the flowers are grown so they both benefit.

We found a great mason to repair our wall just a few days later -- and here it is -- all fixed up. He made sure to fill any holes in the mortar so that no other bees or pests can move in. I need to say thanks to our friend Kathryn Weinland. She hooked us up with both the beekeeper and the mason!

A couple days ago Mike tweeted this picture of his wife and the bees -- our bees made honey!! You see, when they took them there was no honey. He said when they made some he would send us a jar. So, hopefully we'll have some honey soon!

Now about those birds. Brixton has had baby birds living in this small area just outside his window. While we don't want them there it was kind of neat because we could watch them from his window.

The birds have now grown up and moved on and we are trying to figure out how to keep future birds from moving in.