A Maze of Intricate Tunnels
Glover cautiously removed every section of the honeycomb. What he saw surprised him. The Bartlett Bee Whisperer thought he had seen every kind of hive there was. But this one was gigantic. Not only that, but this hive contained a tunneling section that was simply amazing.
Glover couldn’t get over the way the bees had built the honeycomb. The bees had had years in this protected and secluded area to build a truly phenomenal hive. Without any other explanation, Glover jokingly exclaimed, “The construction crew in this part of the hive was dropping acid.”
Assessing the Damage of the Insect Poison
Though a wall of wax protected the majority of the hive from extermination, on the far-left side of the lower end of the hive, Glover noticed a small pile of dead bees. It appeared that the deadly chemicals had destroyed some workers and drones, but, in the end, those sacrifices were insignificant.
On his website, the Bartlett Bee Whisperer explains that using pesticides wastes all the honey and wax, killing the bees that, if relocated, could be used to pollinate people's food. Throughout his website, he busts myths about bees and sets the record straight regarding their use in the world.
Relocating the Hive
Now that Glover had mitigated the damage to the family’s home, he was ready to move on to the relocating part of his job. Bee populations have been shrinking so drastically over the last 15 years that researchers have named it Colony Collapse Disorder.
CCD is affecting $20 billion worth of U.S. crop production annually, according to ABC News. Worldwide, it is just as much of a problem. Glover is in the business of relocating hives. He knows fruit farmers and beekeepers in the area who will take them in. He moves them to a place where they are welcome.
Bees of Peace
All the while, as Glover dismantled the bees' home, the little buzzers stayed calm. We usually think of bees angrily attacking with blazing stings, but Glover said the hive was more cooperative than he expected. A few bees even rested on his shoulder, observing the process.
The bees who had their queen removed were also calm. They seemed curious and confused as they buzzed over and around the strange box that contained their queen. It just goes to show that so much of what we think we know of bees is incorrect. We tend to only encounter them when they are angry and confused, looking to protect themselves. So much so that just the sound of them buzzing makes us afraid and on edge. Not so for Glover.
Wrapping Up
Removing 35,000 bees from a brick wall is a big job. In this case, it required tearing open a 3’x5’ section of the wall. That was quite a project, but then the cleanup work begins. It’s remarkable that it only took four hours to complete the work.
Glover says that most people think a beehive is as big as a wasp's nest, but they have no idea the magnitude of what bees are capable of doing. They'll work with whatever space they have, and the fact that this hiding spot was so protected meant that these bees were able to house multiple generations and thousands of individual bees inside. It’s a good thing the family called him before the hive doubled in size!