RIP Bee's

I spent the morning figuring out what to do with the bee situation. We contacted a bee keeper two weeks ago via email. She said the bees were probably just visiting, they rarely hive in trees and to leave them alone. In all likelihood they'd bee gone within a few days...HA! Last week we noticed them building a hive in the tree. By today it was about twice the size of my head!! Apparently bees can make 1/2 to 1 lb of honeycomb per day and increase the size of the hive to 60,000 bees fairly rapidly. We contacted our homeowners association (they are responsible for our front yard) and after a few hours of debate between the board and the property management company, they agreed to "take care of the hive". We have a fair number of young children in our neighborhood and a swarm that size could do serious damage if disturbed.

We were hoping that this would mean stunning and relocating the hive but apparently the location, cost and liability issues precluded this option and instead the HOA contracted an exterminator for $150.00. Within 20 minutes the dude killed the bees and cut down the branches the hive was on. I am sad about this, I hated to see them exterminated.