Mark and I do the bee cut outs. He did his first one alone, which compounds the difficulty factor, and I begged him to let me come along and help on his next. Before long, we improved our techniques and actually looked like we knew what we were doing!
Mark got online and looked at some bee vacs and then built one for us to use. Made a big difference! Now we look like the BeeBusters when we unload all of our stuff at a cut out location.
The strangest cut out that we ever did ... in a very small town not far from here. We are in the truck on the way to this old farmhouse when Mark gets a call. It is the son of the lady that hired us and he wanted to make sure we were going to be there for the start of the party! Party???? Are you kidding me???? Removal of a hive of bees that are angry about you destroying their home is not, and I repeat, not a spectator sport.
We arrive and there are at least 50 people outside, each with a camera or camcorder. Children are running and playing. There is food and punch.
Mark and I don our bee suits, set up two 8 ft. step ladders with some boards between them for our work area, and start to remove the shingles and boards from the roof where we expect to find the hive. Took all of 3 minutes with the angry bees to drive all of the folks into the house, running and swatting. Several were stung.
They continued the party and taking photos from inside the bay window, their spirits dampened, but not defeated.
