Old Man Riggs (Honey
Bee Man) became
interested in Bees when he was about 11 or 12 years old. He was
introduced to the bees by George Curtis of LaBelle. He helped load
hives into pick-up truck and observed the honey extraction process. It was
fascinating for a young boy and the memory stuck in his head for all these
years.
However,
the thought of personally keeping bees never entered his head until he was
an old man.
Interest was rekindled
when bees made their home at his mother's Home (July and August 2003).
The following photo is the first group of bees and wild (feral) combs
hanging under the carport of his mother (Granny)'s home.
(Click on Image
to view larger version):
Interest was stirred again when
he read an
article in the Fort Myers News Press (March 24, 2004) about bees being
removed from a Cape Coral home. The bees were removed by a local
expert, "Carroll Rhodes"
(a.k.a. The Bee Man).
Old Man Riggs removed the
bees and their feral combs from his mother's home and tried to relocate
the bees. He had great luck with the removal. Establishing a
hive from the removed bees did not go as well. Old Man Riggs sought
the advice and help of Rene of Harold P.
Curtis Honey Companyin LaBelle, Florida. He purchased a used
hive from Rene and followed her instructions, but the weak colony in the
hive fell prey to SHB (small hive beetle) and the bees left (absconded).
Because of the failed
attempt, Old Man Riggs purchased and read "Beekeeping for Dummies" several
times and studied articles and information found on several websites.
He wanted some bees. He just couldn't wait to start his own hive or
two. He even ordered hives, beekeeping equipment, bee
medications, and apparel from online sources. All that remained was
to obtain some bees!
Old Man Riggs was
contacted when some workers discovered a bee nest in a pipe while working
on a project. It was another failure. The bees were
already infested with SHB larvae, the honey was soured, and the bee colony
was almost gone.
Early in March of 2004,
his mother (Granny) informed him that another group of bees had returned,
but were actually within the wall of her home instead of nicely exposed
(as was the case when he had easily removed the bees the year before).
A friend of Granny's had a similar problem with bees inside the structure
of a home and had called "The Bee Man" (who successfully removed the
bees). Her friend gave Granny his name "Carroll Rhodes" and his
phone number. Granny could not afford a professional, so the job was
given to Old Man Riggs.
He studied the
situation and decided to capture the bees by using a screen cone method
and a queen bee (purchased from Rene of Curtis Honey).
Many of the bees were
captured and a hive started... but many more bees remained in the wall.
Click on image to right to view VIDEO CLIP of
bees exiting cone and entering bait nuc hive:
Then, a newspaper ran their article
about bees being removed from a home by "Carroll Rhodes" (a.k.a. The Bee
Man). Rhodes says it is very good luck to get bees in your
home and they come to people who are loving, kind and gentle. Old
Man Riggs's Mother (Granny) was happy to hear this, since she was indeed a
loving, kind, and gentle person.
Old Man Riggs contacted
The Bee Man and talked about bees. Carroll Rhodes turned out to be a
very professional (kind and generous) beekeeper and bee removal expert.
He apparently took pity on Old Man Riggs after hearing of his hive failures and
novice attempts at bee removal. Rhodes went to Granny's and
inspected Old Man Riggs's bee removal setup and offered much helpful advice
and had Old Man Riggs follow him back to his yard where he gave him a bait nuc (short for
nucleus) box with some brood frame and drawn foundation.
Rhodes gave exact, specific, detailed verbal instructions as to what Old
Man Riggs was to do to continue to solve the bee removal problem and how to
boost the already captured and queened colony.
Bee removal at Granny's
is now underway and appears to be going great. Bees are exiting wall
and marching into new home (nuc baited with queen, comb, and brood).
Click images to enlarge.
The colony at home;
however, had problems: gueen wasn't released by other bees (had to
release her by hand). After releasing queen she was accepted, but
never laid any eggs. Then one day 90 percent of the bees walked out
of the hive (couldn't fly), fell off the hive an died. The next day
all but the queen died. Old Man Riggs couldn't find answers on the internet.
Everything appeared fine. He decided to call it quits and let the
queen go. She could fly fine.
Old Man Riggs called The
Bee Man and explained the sad situation. The Bee Man was very upset
that the queen was let loose. He wanted Old Man Riggs to search for
her and bring her to him. Old Man Riggs and his wife were out in the
yard crawling around looking for the useless "non-laying" queen.
When they were about to give up their search a bee was flying around Old
Man Riggs's head... it was the queen. Old Man Riggs opened the nuc hive
and the queen flew right in. The following is a photo of the queen
all by herself (no attendants):
Old Man Riggs took the nuc with the useless "non-laying" queen and the frames of brood, pollen,
honey etc. to The Bee Man. Rhodes said there was nothing wrong with
the queen and apparently the colony died because they were too hot on the
west side of Old Man Riggs's house. He re-caged the queen along with
some attendant bees, added a frame covered with bees (very nice!) and
instructed Old Man Riggs to place the nuc hive on the East side of house
in the shade. He says the queen will lay eggs.
Old Man Riggs set up the nuc hive with the new bees as instructed and is waiting to see what
happens. If you are interested in more of this story and how it unfolds, then
CLICK HERE to go to Denrig's BLOG
"Bees,Beekeeping, and Bee Removal" by
Old Man Riggs. Old Man Riggs is currently Vice President of the
local organization, Beekeepers Association of Southwest Florida.
Please visit theBeekeepers Association
of Southwest Florida for more information on beekeeping in our
area and how you can help. Also visit their new page "What's
Blooming - Honey Plants" for many nice photos of bees and blooms.
Click on the photos
below to view larger versions of the nuc box that Old Man Riggs designed and
built to house his new bees.
Nuc has room for 3 deep
frames and a queen cage. It has an aluminum clad cover with ends
reinforced with wood cleats and plywood to help prevent warping. The
bungee hold-down keeps the cover in place when it is necessary to
transport bees.
The following is hive
set-up purchased from Dadant & Sons. Assembled and painted by
Old Man Riggs:
If you live in Lee
County (Alva, Olga, Buckingham, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, or Fort Myers)
and have need of a "bee removal expert", then e-mail Old Man Riggs... he
may BEE able to get you in touch with a beekeeper or bee remover who can
handle this type of project without killing the bees. If bees must
be killed, then a pest control person should be contacted instead of a
beekeeper.
Contact Old Man
Riggs for your Bee Removal needs in Alva, Lehigh Acres, Fort Myers and
other nearby areas. If it is outside of my area or expertise, then I
will put you in touch with somebody who can possibly help. Click on
the banner below for my contact e-mal address:
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Bee removal services are NOT FREE!!! Somehow, there exist a
misunderstanding that wild bees are loved, prized, or valued by
beekeepers. This is not true! Also there is the notion that
the bee remover will get loads of valuable honey. This is usually
not the case!
If you call on the
services of a bee remover (i.e., Keith or The Bee Man), please do not insult them by thinking you are
doing them a favor by calling them out to get some bees and honey.
Please expect to pay a minimum of $60.00 to the bee remover just for
showing up, suiting up, lighting smoker, and removing a simple (exposed)
wild bee nest. An average NEST removal requiring baiting the bees
out through a one-way exit screen cone and getting them into a nuc (or
other container) could easily run $100 to $300 and the process could take
2 or 3 weeks to be successful. Bees which require structure removal,
ladders, or which have poor accessibility could run well over $300.00.
A NEST is different
than a SWARM. A nest is when the bees have already chosen a
permanent home and have began making comb, storing their honey, and their
queen is laying eggs. Swarms are when the bees do not have a home
(no combs, no honey, no egg-laying) and are temporarily hanging around on
a branch, bench, wall, etc. until they can find a suitable home.
Some swarms are easily removed (compared to nest removal) and swarms may
have some value to NEW, BEGINNER novice beekeepers, and then only in the
SPRING (March & April). Swarms, nests, wild bees, wild honey, are
NOT desired by established/professional beekeepers and bee removers.
