I called a bee removal company and they said to give it 3-4 days to see if it was just a moving swarm. If there were still there after the wait, then call back.
We went to A&M and A got sick so I didn't bother to look again until Wednesday and sure enough the bees were still there. I started calling to find out what to do with the bees.
The first place I called charged $250.00 for bee removal. Ouch. I tried the next one on the list. They charged $200.00 for bee extermination. It was cheaper but they were coming to kill the bees. I asked if they did bee removal instead of killing them. She said it was an extra $100 to move the bees. If I wanted to set up a hive in our backyard it was an extra $200 with no guarantee that the bees would live or stay. I called the first people back and found out that it was $250.00 to kill the bees, and an extra $100.00 to move the hive.
This is ridiculous. Bees are dying all over the country and these people want to charge me $200-$250 to voluntarily kill them. I wasn't going to do it.
Luckily I thought to call the County Agriculture Extension Office. They gave me the phone number of bee people who remove wild bees. The first guy I talked to would remove the bees for $175, if nothing had been sprayed on the bees. I guess that makes them angry and he won't deal with that. At least it was cheaper than killing them. The next two numbers were no longer in service. The last one said he no longer dealt with bees but gave the number for the Texas Honey Bee Guild.
The Texas Honey Bee Guild is a couple who build hives at other peoples' homes and take care of the bees. They give some of the honey to the people who house the hives, the rest they sell in local health food stores as ZIP CODE honey. I guess it is good for allergies to eat honey made from pollen in your area.
She said since the bees were not building in a wall or eave, she could remove them for $50.00. That's more like it. She is suppose to try and come by on Monday to take the bees. I hope I'm home to watch.
Maybe someday I'll have a bee hive. That's almost as cool as having chickens!
2 comments:
Sarah,
While I applaud your concerns about honey bees, I'd kindly suggest that your honey bees are likely Africanized, and thus present problems for a live removal. Your area has been colonized by Africanized honey bees for some time now, and they simply do not make good occupants for our hive boxes, as they usually get more defensive, swarm frequently & put away less honey than gentle European subspecies.
Our experiences have shown repeatedly that water meter bee colonies turn out to be Africanized, and we end up having to kill the queen and replace her with an European queen. This is colony extermination, as the queen is the source of all other individuals in the colony. So I ask, what's the point in a live removal?
Also, consider that your live removal provider likely does not carry liability or workmen's comp insurance. Should there be a sting incident, you may be holding the bag on paying medical bills, etc. It may be a low probability, but it's something to consider.
Anyway, I made a post that addresses some of these issues ( swarm live removal)at myALL Florida Bee Removal Blog.
Should you have any questions, I'm happy to discuss them.
Richard Martyniak, Entomologist
Thanks for your concern.
The couple came today to remove the bees. They were not defensive at all. It was quite interesting to watch. The hive was much bigger than I ever thought. The man guessed there were approximately 30k bees in the box. He showed us the different pieces of comb and we got to see several new bees coming out of the comb. It was cool.
They put a couple pieces of comb in frames and left a box out there by the meter box. They will come back in a couple days to take the box.
I'll ask them about africanized bees when they return.
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