7/31/11

Cut-out adventure in Mt. Washington

Does this look like a newbee to you? Karen gets right into it.




LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Rob answered a call to the Bee Rescue Hotline about a swarm on the wall of a house in Mt Washington. He met Karen there, who has been studying beekeeping and going to meetings. Now she was ready to get into the thick of it.

When they got there they saw it wasn't really a swarm but bearding outside of a vent where a hive had set up. Rob got a group of us together to return and do the cutout. Gwen lent us her ladder and with quick work Rob had the vent removed and the hive exposed.




Even though this was the first cutout she was doing, Karen climbed up the 20 foot ladder and cut out the comb with ease and confidence. She was super cool and a natural with the bees.

The hard part was getting the rest of the bees out of the roof, because there was a lot of space between the insulation and lots of vents to use. There was also a crazy bee activity that looked like robbers that had joined the frenzy.

It took Rob patience and hours to take care of the other vents and coax the bees out. A labor of honeylove.

—roberta