the Way of the Turtle

That's a Lot of Honeybees...
Friday, July 29, 2011

Over the last 50 years there have been alarming reductions in the numbers of both wild and beekeeper-supported honeybees. This hit the news about 5 years ago when entire colonies of honeybees began dying off (Colony Collapse Disorder) for no apparent reason. I know some folks look at that and think "What's the big deal? They're just bees..." but the truth is honeybees are very important in both the pollination of wild plants (allowing them to reproduce) and many agricultural crops (I had never realized prior to reading about CCD that there are commercial beekeepers who travel with their hives to farming operations to provide bees for crop pollination.) Honeybees are a vital part of the ecosystem and the agricultural system.

I got word last night that this week the Albany Academy (my employer) had a company in to remove a honeybee hive from under part of the roof. The company that did  the removal is called Everything Honey Bee Inc and performs live extractions - they save as many of the bees as they can, as well as removing the hive and honeycombs. Big kudos to AA for taking this approach when it probably would have been cheaper to just bring in an exterminator to kill all the bees and then a contractor to remove the hive and repair the damage.

Everything Honey Bee's youtube video of the removal/extraction gives a good idea of not only what a big job this was but also the sheer size of the colony living under the roof...



JMH