Bees in our House

Carol and I live in a house built in the 1930’s in Dalworthington Gardens, TX. It is a real neat house, but Carol’s husband is not a handyman that houses such as ours needs. As a rule, she is the lead “fix it” person and I am the helper.

There are problems that I can solve at the house, because I know how to write a check. With the power of hindsight, we had Africanized bees making a home on our house right above what used to be Tamara’s bedroom window. We are guessing they have been building the hive for three years or so. Carol was aware of the problem and had encouraged me to deal with it. They really are not a problem until you tick them off when you are mowing the backyard which led me to finally address the issue.

I hunted down a bee removal company that did not use chemicals, trying to be a green as I could be. (Yes I like the pun) I found the nice folks of Parker County Chimney Sweeps. I learned from then if you clean a lot of chimneys, you end up getting rid of a lot of bees.

I was going to take pictures of the process, but they warned me that if they were Africanized, I would get stung. So the dogs and I hung out inside as they went to work. It took them about two hours in the Texas heat to resolve the bee problem. They placed the honey combs in a plastic bag and said it would be safe to harvest and eat.

Carol and I built a sophisticated harvesting contraption that involved a step ladder, bungee cords, a folding chair, and a plastic jar.

We have not eaten any honey as of yet. If this blog continues, it will be evidence that the honey did not kill us.