Bee Gone Wild... Not Kidding

This has thus far been an unprecedented bee swarming season.  

If you ever wanted to catch a swarm, this would be THE time! I got five bee swarm calls today. Two in Albany (which I picked up, one was the biggest I have ever caught), one in Oakland, one if S.F and another also in Albany but it turned out the bees had settled in an attic - I am going back with my extraction partner to see if we can remove the bees at a reasonable cost to the very kind and responsible home owner.  

I was shocked when she told me that another bee remover had tried to scare her by saying if she didn't spend $900 that day to remove the bees and their "destructive pheromones" (this is total b.s. - I don't even know what he could have MEANT by that) that the bees would attack and possibly KILL her dog? Hello!?!?

Thank goodness the woman knew it was a scam. Anyway, we shall see if I can help and make a little money at the job. I want to be compensated for a half day of hard, hot and dangerous work but I don't want to rip anyone off.  

One of the bee swarms I removed literally took me all of 30 seconds - it was the classic "beard" just hanging there unobstructed by anything at all. The other was high up and embedded in bushes and took about 15 minutes of cutting and trimming and all said, the whole job was about an hour and a half of my time.

But, I got bees out of it and a fun experience (turns out my son's teacher and the school secretary both stopped by so that was a lot of community building), so I don't charge for that kind of bee removal...who would?

Happy Bees!