Posted on 11/07/2010 7:31:43 PM PST by nickcarraway
“That is one pretty darn big nest,” said Ken Crayton, a retiree from Rochester, N.Y., showing it off in Thursday morning’s drizzle.
“Oh, my goodness,” said Joan Hayes, the homeowners association vice president, peering at the big hive. “Never seen anything like it,” her husband Bill said. The Craytons had just returned last week from spending two months in Anderson, S.C., and invited their son and daughter-in-law for dinner.
“We never noticed anything,” Crayton said. “But our son took their Jack Russell outside for a walk and said, ‘Holy jeepers! Look at the size of that nest up there!’ That’s how we discovered it.”
“As soon as I looked at it, I said, ‘Everybody back in the house,’ ” Nancy Crayton said.
The bees appear to be docile and hadn’t stung anyone as of Thursday.
Charlie Hunsicker, the county’s natural resources department director, wasn’t surprised by the hive’s size. “These are honey bees taking advantage of their surroundings — thousands of acres of mangroves and wild flowers that bloom in the fall,” he said. “That’s their main source of food.
“They’re an important part of our environment — although you might not want them right in your backyard.” Hayes said she had contacted the subdivision’s management company and the hive would be taken care of. Rather than have it exterminated, however, she had a creative solution.
“Maybe we have a way of paying our association dues now,” Hayes kidded. “We can make our own honey, call it ‘Perico Island Honey!’ ”
That would be a “Triple Dog Dare” move.
"Hold muh beer and watch THIS!"
Is it like the huge bee hive on Mysterious Island?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meO2VzcMEgI&feature=related
Been there, done that, when I was the not so wise age of 14.
So much for colony collapse - wow!
I made a bee-vacuum out of a shopvac and a couple of 5 gallon buckets once. If one could use something along those lines to capture the queen without hurting her, along with many worker bees, then harvest as much comb as one could, using dental floss or thin wire to attach it to frames...one could remove the potential problem by containing it, removing, but still keeping it.
Waiting for full onset winter might be enough? If one was wishing to be rid of them. They might die of exposure, if it got cold enough. It would depend on how much cold that part of the country got, I'm guessing.
I hate to see pesticides used on honeybees, if they are not acting like yellowjackets. If they were much africanized, would it have been plain enough by now? But if they ARE africaized, then they may leave (abscond) on their own.
When I lived in Newport News Virginia years ago, one fall after the leaves had dropped, the nextdoor neighbor noticed he had a paper wasp nest in a tree that was the size of a good sized watermelon. I helped him out, and we put a kerosine soaked rag on the end of a long pole, and set that puppy on fire. There were quite a few wasps buzzing around, but that big old nest burned pretty bright for a while....
“Try a cone-shaped bee hive, 3 feet long and 2 feet wide across its top,”
Piffle.
That ain’t nuthin’.
There’s a 19th century school house at the end of my lane and the entire back wall and part of the side wall was FULL of honey bees.
The comb was inside -all- of that space.
Every spring they’d swarm and part of them would take off with their new queen and the whole building was literally black with them.
It was an awesome sight to behold.
They never bothered anybody and once in a while, a couple would hitch a ride on me when I went to fetch the mail.
Then the guy who inherited the property came in and gassed them all.
It was horrible and unnecessary.
I miss them.
My dad keeps hives up on the mountain and his bees come down and hang around the clover and dandelions every summer and if I’m sitting out there, they’ll land on me and “spiff” themselves for a while before flying off.
I like bees.
There the bee’s knees!
I agree. I love bees. A terrible thing to kill them.
Oh good grief.
You can’t crawl out of the gutter for one second, can you?
:-P
Bee a deer and go slap yourself for me, wood ewe?
I bet they never “bother” you either, do they?
[bees *know*]
:)
I totally didn’t get what he was alluding too.
None of your bee’s wax.
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