Exterior Project in N. Barrington
We were pressure washing a home when we noticed roof areas with heavy wasp activity. An exterminator was called to take care of the nests but informed that there were also honeybees, which are protected and would need to be relocated.
I recalled building a cement beehive stand for my friend Paul who happened to live close by. I asked if he knew anyone I could hire to help out. He said “You and me. I have bee suits and between us we have all we need to do this.” We retrofitted a hive with a stop screen, used vacuum attachments and a shop-vac, watched several videos on how to do it, and were ready to go.
We set up ladders, brought up the vacuum, the hive, buckets, and tools to disassemble the soffit and fascia. After an hour and a half of vacuuming bees, it became pretty clear there were many more than expected. Eventually, we removed more soffit exposing 14 ft of honeycombs, 10” deep and 2-3” wide, which now are dripping honey on me, the ladder, the roof, and the vacuum. Each time we got close to the queen, the bees intensified their humming so we used a smoker. What we thought would be a 1-hour project took more than 6 hours over several days to complete.
When finished, we outfitted the new beehive with pieces of the old honeycomb, the queen and worker bees, and moved to Paul’s property with the other hives. We estimate to have relocated more than 10,000 bees. In total we used 5, 5-gallon buckets to remove all of the honeycombs and honey. As you can imagine, cleanup was a chore.
I am often asked why I take on projects like this. It’s simple. My mind is wired to come up with problem solving solutions. My customers appreciate the attention to detail and helping them develop solutions for issues that need to be addressed on their homes. In hindsight, now that I know what we were getting into, I would have not taken on a project like this – but I have no regrets. Character building!
My first blog was about solving a woodpecker problem for a customer. And now it’s the bees. So I guess to get the blogs rolling properly, we first need to talk about the birds and the bees.
At Cappi Painting & Decorating, we have 35 years of experience in the remodeling and repair industry. Our staff has the knowledge, design and dependability to get the job done. Whether you need your home painted or help with a bee problem, let Cappi Painting & Decorating professionally estimate a price for you! Give us a call today at 847-707-9810 or visit us online.
