I Didn't Want To Do This

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This live honey bee removal was done at an assisted living facility in Biloxi, Mississippi in August of 2019. As I state in the video, I didn't want to do this job, not even a little bit. I even put them off several times in hopes that the bees would go away on their own or that the company would find someone else to do the job. Working at heights above about fifteen feet really scares me since having vertigo problems for several years straight a while back. The funny thing is I used to walk roofs as high as this one with no fall protection as part of my job. I didn't like heights then and the older I get the more heights bother me. Today there isn't enough money to get me on top of a building like this. When I first looked at this property it was just before hurricane season in 2018. I skated away from the job with the excuse that I had to go out of town to work, which I did many weeks later. We worked hurricane claims in North and South Carolina and Florida for a few months. Of course when I got back to town I didn't bother to call and see if they still needed me to remove the bees. Several months later the calls and emails started up again. The bees seemed to have gotten more aggressive and were stinging some of their elderly residents so the balcony had been made off limits.

When I finally agreed to do this job over a year after first looking at it, it was only after having Pete drive over to look at it and agree to do all the work himself. I was only going to be his go-fer/assistant. I'm not at all lazy or scared of work but I wasn't about to be up on a ladder that close to the edge of that third floor balcony without a whole bunch of expensive fall protection in place. I even bought a harness for Pete but he wouldn't wear it so while he was up on the ladder prying trim down I stood next to him and held on to his pants in case he slipped. I'm almost exactly twice Pete's size so I had no doubt I could snatch him to safety, so that was my plan. Thank God the demo work went off without a hitch and I didn't have to rag doll him across the balcony.

After being on the balcony for a while my nerves settled a bit and I was able to get near the edge, still not without fear. Once we discovered that the bees were in that column my mind was at ease somewhat since we were on solid footing working in that corner. Once we gained access to the hive the property management came to see what they had. They were absolutely blown away by the size of it. They tasted the honey and took a little comb honey home with them. We ended up removing a little under two hundred pounds worth of hive and bees. The honey was split between Pete, myself and property management. After separating from the wax there ended up being a little over eight gallons of honey if I recall correctly.

Two days later I returned and rebuilt everything myself which included working on a ladder to finish all the upper trim. I had a death grip on the column the whole time though which caused me to be there twice as long rebuilding the upper trim. I sealed the column from the inside to prevent a reinfestation. This hive had been there at least a couple of years. This was confirmed by the maintenance man who met with me to let me in for the final repairs.

I still have the honey from this job and will have it bottled and on our web site in the next few weeks.

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