St. Augustine Hive
On April 29th, 2010, Tom Vanhook, groundskeeper for St. Mary Cemetery in St. Bernard near Cincinnati, OH, gave me a call asking if I could remove a feral hive from a tree on the property. His concern was that the bees would bother people during Mothers' Day and Memorial Day visits. I shared with him that removing bees from a tree is difficult, but I would give it a try. Tom and other preferred removal over just killing the bees. This is important since wild bee populations are on the decline. I showed up on May 3rd with a 20 foot ladder, a deep with frames, 2 frames of freshly laid eggs, and a drill. The deep also had a plywood baseboard that completely covered the bottom. The picture to the left is the bees' entrance and it is about 2 inches in diameter. It is located on the topside of a branch. I started by placing a homemade bee escape (made out of a lint trap) over the hole so the bees could only exit the tree. I then tried to position the deep over the bee escape. Becau...