David L. Glover of "The Bartlett Bee Whisperer" is here to share the fascinating story of how he removed a beehive of a whooping 30 feet that lived inside a house for as long as 50 years. Read his interview and let him take you through this virtual adventure where he is busy removing the gigantic hive all day long!
#1 David shared the account of the story on his website and it has gone viral ever since.
It is not very uncommon when bees form hives on the walls outside our house in a garage or any other isolated part of the house. Usually, for this purpose, you can hire bee relocators who can relocate the hive safely without causing much harm to it. By the name, "The Bartlett Bee Whisperer" David L. Glover runs the insect-friendly bee rescue, removal, and relocation service in the Midsouth US—in West Tennessee, East Arkansas, and North Mississippi.

David has removed bee hives form homes around 200 times a year and each colony having around 40k bees in it.
Usually, David's rescued bees are given a chance to live better and they are mostly donated to nonprofit organizations who then use them in their programs or David uses the bees to repopulate empty hive boxes.
Because of his business, there has been a huge boost to the local beekeepers who suffered major losses of the colony.
Recently, during his field job, David came across a beehive as large as 30 feet.
#2

#3

#4 The bees have lived in this house for the last 50 years.
The owner used to listen to their buzz while sleeping at night. They entered the second floor and made space in the gaps of clapboard too.

#5 Forming patterns like braille (just kidding)

#6

#7 "Inside the house, the heat signature was promising. I called Julie and presumptuously said we were looking at 8 feet of comb"

#8 "While I was setting up outside, I started getting the backstory on the bees that had been in the deck around 40-50 years ago…"

#9 The whole family and friends actually came by to watch the show unfold.
"Because the heat signature showed the hive below the deck, I started up there, removing the clapboards. #ClassyCassie has been sick this week so she missed this show."

#10

#11 Sharing details of the adventure he is getting into.
Today’s construction puts headers on top of the studs. When this house was built, the studs went the length of the walls. The potential for a long hive had just hit me. The cavities to the right of the hive have combs in them also, not as many bees, but combs nonetheless.

#12 "This was painstakenly slow for me. The nails were as solid as the construction. Tough old house!"
David shared that the active portion of the hive had a lot of dark comb.

#13 "This is the local STEM teacher. She was excited to see the bees. They have an observation hive at the school."

#14 "Does this hive look like a big nosed guy with a cigar in his mouth???"

#15 "The bottom of the hive. WOW! Look at the color change."

#16 First removing the drone brood.
"Some of the first combs I removed were mostly drone brood. I set them off to the side just in case I needed pieces of them for my game of comb-in-frame Tetris. The frenetically flying bees, robbers (neighboring honey bees seeing an opportunity to get some free food), showed up within minutes of opening the hive."

#17
"I almost always use plastic foundation as a carrying tray for combs, especially when they are large sections of combs. Photo credits to Mrs. Joey Parker. The sections of comb I was sawing out came from a single piece that was 8 feet tall and as wide as the distance between studs."

#18 "And another piece of brood comb"

#19 David shares a brief summary of the process of removing a hive at home.
The process of removing a hive from a home is simple: 1. Vacuum bees off the face of the comb (the area that will be resting on the plastic foundation) 2. Cut the comb to the appropriate length or height. 3. Catch the comb. 4. Cut the comb to fit into a hive frame. 5. Rubber band the comb in place. 6. Put the frame in a box. 7. Repeat. Somewhere in that process, I need to add a step for “Try not to get stung.”

#20 "I repeated that process several times, saving 12 frames of brood combs."

#21 "See how square those combs are? The bee-engineers made it almost easy for me here."

#22 "I didn’t remove small sections from the hive. Each piece I cut was large enough to go into 2 frames when halved."

#23 "Speaking of square combs, I’ve filled up my transfer hive with 10 deep frames of brood combs. Now I’m working on a 5-frame nuc."

#24 "As I moved up the hive, I noticed dry combs and bees extending further up the wall and some combs going behind me into the deck."

#25 "I had to remove the bottom of the deck to remove those combs."

#26 Starting from the bottom of the deck.
"Instead of continuing the removal process working upwards, I started working from the deck down. I had not seen the queen and I didn’t want her hiding where I couldn’t see her."

#27 Search for queen bee goes on.
"Working downward on the last comb in this section, I felt confident that the queen was still down here. Telltale signs and movements from the bees gave me that confidence."

#28 "I wasn’t disappointed. She was a very dark breed of bee, almost too hard to see on all the dark wood."

#29 "In the shade and over my transfer hive, I moved the queen into a candied queen cage."

#30 "The queen and one worker. I added 3 more attendants to the cage and placed it in my pocket for safekeeping."

#31

#32 "Moving the ladder to the outside, I started exposing the rest of the hive."
"That is not a look of defeat, but the focused look of a man removing more clapboard. So much for the 8 foot hive."

#33 "All three sections had more dry combs, but they had all been for honey at one time."
"Two colonies, two queens, twelve frames of brood, three stings, and a Chick-fil-A sandwich from the youngest Parker (the last to arrive for the show). It was a great day. Done Y’all!"

#34 Business is flourishing for David
In his interview with Bored Panda, David talks about his business and impact on it during the pandemic, “We’ve been able to relocate almost 300 colonies over the last year. We have started working with 3 nonprofits that utilize honey bees in their programs. All 3 are people-oriented. One works to stop human trafficking. The second works with At-Risk Kids and farm animals that have been abused or neglected. The animals and kids are rehabilitated together. Rescued bees fit their program as well as providing honey to sell increasing opportunities for the kids. The third provides 100% of their honey profits to a care facility that cares for individuals whose family caregiver has passed. They use the honey money to purchase equipment that the clients’ insurance won’t provide.”
The Bee Whisperer added that the coronavirus pandemic has increased his business. “With adults at home and in their yards, they have noticed the honey bees in their yards and in the sides of their homes. We are 2 and a half months booked to remove bees from homes.”
