Buzz

The other day I spotted this hanging colony of bees took it upon myself to seek out a beekeeper who could come and safely, humanely relocate the bees to a new permanent home.

In the spring, it is common for a hive to split, a young queen and a mass of workers will depart the original hive and form a new colony. Often, these colonies will amass on a branch, like what we see here. Honey bees will eventually move to a new home in 1-3 days, but until they locate a suitable location, they remain exposed and at some degree of risk. Without intervention, the bees might have soon moved on to a new home on their own, but if they set up that home in an attic or a crack in a home, they'd become a nuisance and liable to be killed, same as if I'd left them hanging, they ran the risk of being disturbed or killed by a frightened passerby with access to Raid.

I looked up humane bee relocation services and found the following site which listed several local beekeepers.

http://beeremovalsource.com/bee-removal-list/georgia/

This is Mike, who came out with his son to retrieve this hanging colony. He has a location in Stone Mountain, GA where he will place this colony into a box beehive and they can produce honey for him.
 

Mike Schaaphok, Atlanta, GA
Phone: 770-265-7662 
Email:  mbschaaphok@usa.net

I was hesitant to stand this close to these bees, but Mike assured me that they are rather docile when they gather like this because they are running on reserve energy until they find a new home.

We could see bees coming and going from this colony, they'd land on the mass and do their waggle dance, sharing the information they'd gathered on their scouting expeditions.

It was a pretty neat experience. I am glad I was able to help to give these essential pollinators a new home and a new start at a hive of their own.