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Feral honeybee removal from city park

Last year (around Feb-April 2012) my daughter noticed honeybees entering /exiting a bird habitat in a city park.  She took a few pictures of the hive, and for the last year, we’ve been monitoring it’s progress and growth.

The hive grew large enough that they were building wax honeycomb on the exterior of the habitat box and for about 18 inches below the box.

I was curious to see who had placed the bird habitat box, and contacted several Boy Scout troops local to my area (Richardson, Texas) to see if they had placed the boxes.  I was unable to track down the troop – so contacted the City Of Richardson maintenance department to see if they knew anything about the boxes.

The maintenance supervisor I spoke with was aware of the boxes, and indicated that generally, after a scout has achieved their eagle-Scout rank – then they pretty much abandon the habitats that have been placed.  I explained the situation with the honeybees in the bird habitat, and the supervisor told me that they would be happy for me to remove the colony of honeybees.

Today was the day of their big move.  I arrived at the park, and met with several city officials in regards to the bees – after a short conversation with them, they seemed happy with my plan of action – and went on their way.  30 minutes later, the bees were safely relocated to my Dallas area bee yard.  My hopes are to video my removal of the colony and the re-homing of the bees to a standard langstroth bee-box.  Hopefully, I can get that accomplished some time next week.

 

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