by John Allen
It was a dramatic coincidence of circumstances that lead us to rescuing the two hives on Gower Street. On Earth Day, 2018, the BirdHouse hosted Hollywood Orchard in the Luscious Loquat pick and community pop-up kitchen to make Loquat Salsa. Heading down Gower with a small picking crew we found the street gushing the biggest river of a busted public water main I’ve seen in my 30 years in the hood. At that moment I got a call from Fran Reichenbach pleading with me to get to the location of a threatened beehive which happened to be just across the street from where I was standing. Crossing the street meant a soaking above the ankles.
Neighbor Joyce greeted me and pointed toward the backside of the house in ruins, a crime scene of breaking and entering just that night. She had evidently found our post on Nextdoor.com calling out for any known wild hives in need of rescue. Since the police got involved and found the body of the owner, George, inside, they were eager to fence the place up. This meant getting the bees out before they did. They weren’t going to wait for a bee rescue. Joyce had already hired a team to board the place against intruders. But boarding up the place was impeded by the swarming bees themselves. The word was out that they were going to poison the hive to complete their work.
Chip, Cameron, and I heeded the call. Chip went in to scout the situation and found it to be a tremendous undertaking because it meant cutting away the 1930’s stucco exterior wall just to get a visual on the scale of things. The Beachwood Canyon Neighbors Association helped by purchasing a ‘bee-vac’ essential to the job. We started at 8 a.m. and worked until dark (about 8 p.m.) that night.
We used a masonry blade to cut through 1″ of stucco wall to reveal one hive approximately 4 feet wide by four feet tall, and another 3 feet x 7 feet. Each hive was three layers of comb deep.
Fortunately, the bees were a friendly lot and we were well received. I like to think they understood our kind words and cooperative incantations. The two smokers certainly helped and we kept them running as we worked in a bucket brigade fashion cutting comb out in sizes to fit the hive frames that we strapped them into with rubber bands. The bee vac amassed bees into one fully packed box from each hive, which were immediately released into the new hive three boxes tall.
The hives were robust and we relocated 18 frames of brood comb from which a new population will soon emerge. The honeycomb, being powdered with our sawdust, is not suitable for human consumption but will make hardy winter backup for the hives. It took two nights for the stragglers to find their way into the new hives before we shut the doors and relocated them a few blocks away to their new home in gardens of the BirdHouse where the spring flush of pollinating flowers and trees can properly host our new friends.
Bees will normally orbit home in a 3 mile radius, so there is a good chance they have already been foraging here and feel quite at home.
Moving the new hives had to take place after dark, when the bees are tucked away for the night. No sooner had we pulled away from the scene of known crimes, than the police helicopter circled overhead with their powerful spotlight scanning the area. Mission accomplished!
Epilogue: After 2 years of happy residence in the BirdHouse garden, the bees were recently moved to a more remote location.
