- Sometimes they choose places that we think are so weird
but for them they might be perfect.
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I removed bees from a speaker on someone's porch, a tire,
an RV, you know, it's amazing places
that bees choose to build.
The first thing I do when I get to a bee removal situation
is I assess the temperament of the colony.
You know, I try to get a read
on if they're gonna be a gentle, docile colony
or they might be a little bit more aggressive.
So I just start to gather clues like the size
of the colony or how long they've been there,
how many resources they have
to try to get a read on the temperament.
And then sometimes I have to find the location
of the actual hive.
So if I'm looking at a wall and, you know, I might not know
exactly where the bees are located in that wall.
Sometime I have to pinpoint the exact location of that hive.
And then I make the plan for how to get in there
and remove the bees in the best and safest way possible.
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I always wear protective gear when I need to,
beekeeping gear and it's big and bulky.
And it has to be to prevent you from getting stung,
but you know anybody who's worn gloves knows
it's harder to do everything in gloves.
And so those beekeeping gloves are like welding gloves.
You lose a lot of dexterity
which is so important when you're working
with these tiny little creatures.
The veil, you lose some visibility in the suit.
You certainly lose a lot of mobility.
The less gear I wear, the more comfortable I am many times.
So if the bees will let me work alongside them
without wearing as much protective gear,
a lot of times I'll choose to do so.
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I give them everything they need,
all the resources they need
to continue the work that they do.
And hopefully they'll stick around.
You know, they can choose to swarm or leave again.
I don't harvest and sell honey.
As a beekeeper, it's just not what I love about bees.
So, you know, I just let them live here
and live out their bee lives
and continue to do the work
that's so important for our planet.
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Bees are so important to the diversity of our ecosystem
and our food system, and they do so much for our planet.
So it's really important
that we do whatever we can to help them.
People think that bees want to sting them all the time.
And that's just not true.
Not all bees want to sting all the time.
And you know, if you see a bee,
the best thing to do is just let her be, leave her alone.
If you have a question or you see a lot of bees,
call a professional bee keeper
and they can help you figure out
what's going on with the bees.
But it's really important that if you see a hive
that needs to be removed
you don't call an exterminator
who will likely kill the bees.
Call a beekeeper who will rescue and relocate the bees.
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