The Brownsmead Bees

I got a call from a guy in Portland. He and his brother bought a farm in Brownsmead. The previous owner told them about some bee hives that some old beekeeper left there ten years ago and has since died. He wanted to know if I could come and remove the bees.

This sort of call is always a crap shoot. I always hope to find healthy bees in nice equipment. I started to worry when he told me there were beneath a ton of blackberries.

I drove out and met one of the brothers who opened the gate. I drove across the bumpy field to the side of the shed where he directed me. The berry vines were so thick I couldn’t even see the hives. I fired up my weed whacker with the brush hog attachment. A half hour later the six hives were exposed.

I removed the dead hives to make more room to work the hives that had obvious activity. I opened the equipment closer to my truck and found that these hives were once active with mice and wax moths. They were deep in compost. There was actually soil that was several inches deep with worms in it. It was rich stuff. All this equipment was worthless and I just threw it on the truck to take to a burn pile.

The remaining hives with activity were also worn out with holes chewed in the sides with bees coming and going from several entrances. These hives were laden with dirt on the lower level and honey on the top level. I couldn’t separate the boxes so I dragged the heavy mass to the truck and I tried to cover every hole with duct tape.

I got everything home and I made some room for the new colonies and I placed them there. I was exhausted from spending several hours cutting brush and moving hives. I stacked the hives and left them. I’ll go in to see what’s inside some evening this week. All I can tell right now is the bees look good and healthy. I’m sure I’ll have to replace every frame inside the hives.

So now I have fifteen colonies, which is nearly twice as many as I want to have. I’m hoping for a good honey year.