{"id":164407,"date":"2024-07-31T13:46:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T17:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=164407"},"modified":"2024-07-31T15:20:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T19:20:03","slug":"beegone-from-discovery-to-relocation-hathorn-halls-honeybee-hive-had-bates-buzzing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2024\/07\/31\/beegone-from-discovery-to-relocation-hathorn-halls-honeybee-hive-had-bates-buzzing\/","title":{"rendered":"Beegone! From discovery to relocation, Hathorn Hall\u2019s honeybee hive had Bates buzzing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hathorn Hall, the college\u2019s first building, is home to faculty offices in English, neuroscience, and mathematics, plus several administrative offices and high-ceiling classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And until last week, it was also the residence of around 50,000 honeybees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each summer, workers in the various building trades swarm the campus, taking on projects large and small, so they inevitably discover animal homes, whether squirrels in a Frye Street attic or a thriving honeybee hive in the college\u2019s oldest building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovered by painters working on the 1855 building\u2019s white trim, the hive was within the soffit where the portico roof joins the brickwork of the main building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian
Brian Mason of Spicer Bees gathers his equipment, including a homemade bee vacuum, as Facility Services carpenter Matt Capone (right) heads toward his tool cart at Hathorn Hall on July 25, 2024. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After its discovery (\u201cthe hard way,\u201d said a painter who was stung), Facility Services made a call to Brian Mason, owner of Spicer Bees in Whitefield, Maine<\/a>. He arrived at 8:30 a.m. last Thursday to begin removing the hive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining him was Facility Services carpenter Matt Capone. As the two donned bee suits, Mason opined that the Bates hive was probably new. It was a safe guess, since many hives in the wild die off each year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Capone at the controls of a Genie boom lift, the pair ascended two stories to the site of the hive. As more and more bees buzzed around them, Capone used an oscillating multitool and pry bars to remove a section of wood trim. That opened the soffit for Mason, who used a homemade vacuum to suck up the bees and special hive tools to scrape the extensive comb attached to the roof joists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian
Facility Services carpenter Matt Capone dons a bee suit on July 25, 2024. His job was to maneuver a boom lift into position and remove trim pieces that allowed Brian Mason to get at the honeybee hive in Hathorn Hall. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As he worked, Mason tossed pieces of comb onto the floor of the boom basket. Soon, honey was dripping from the basket, some drops tasted by onlookers. Hallelujah, it\u2019s raining honey! Later on, Mason took a big taste from a comb. \u201cBobcat Blend, local honey,\u201d he said. \u201cTastes great!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 45 minutes into their work, Capone lowered the boom to the ground. The hive was much bigger than Mason had originally thought. Given the amount of comb and its very good condition, he wanted to save what he could. He exited the basket and headed back to his car to retrieve a box for saved pieces of comb, which, in addition to honey, contained the brood \u2014 eggs, larvae, and pupae \u2014 within the hexagonal cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian
Aboard the Genie boom lift, Brian Mason (left) and Matt Capone work together to remove comb and bees from the Hathorn Hall hive on Thursday, July 25. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The size of the hive told Mason that the hive was not new, likely having survived at least one Maine winter. Mason also noticed some long-abandoned combs. Because bees prefer to colonize where hives have been before, the hive \u201calso could\u2019ve been active years ago, then abandoned, and then resettled in the last couple of years.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wild honeybees aren\u2019t casual about where they create their hives \u2014 for them, like humans, it\u2019s all about location, location, location. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Bates location checked all the boxes,\u201d Mason said. For example, \u201cin the wild, bees prefer to nest well off the ground, as they did at Bates.\u201d And in northern climates, bees often choose a south-facing location (Hathorn faces southwest) to help with warmth and temperature control, and prefer dry, dark, and deep spaces, which the soffit certainly was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the Bates hive had a single entrance, a small slit that had opened up behind a downspout. \u201cA single entrance helps bees regulate the temperature of the hive and helps them defend the hive,\u201d Mason said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And defend the bees did, dive-bombing Mason and Capone with the gusto of wartime aviators. When Mason returned to the ground to retrieve the box, he showed his glove, which was dotted with tiny yellowish nobules. \u201cVenom sacks from bees trying to sting,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian
Brian Mason shows his work glove, dotted with tiny venom sacs from bees trying to sting him in defense of their hive. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Capone said that compared to milled trim boards available today, the wood trim removed from Hathorn was heavy, thick, and nailed into place with 19th-century square nails. That meant the trim was likely original to the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As passers-by became a crowd of onlookers, they buzzed about the fate of the queen. Folks wanted to know if Mason captured the queen in his vacuuming? \u201cWe don\u2019t know that,\u201d he said. His homemade bee vacuum uses a regular shop-vac motor that has baffling between the motor and the container that reduces the mortality of bees being sucked in. \u201cBut vacuuming is not 100 percent mortality-free, so the queen could\u2019ve been killed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian
Brian Mason holds a piece of comb, oozing with wild honey, that was removed from the Hathorn Hall hive on July 25, 2024. Mason dubbed it \u201cBobcat Blend.\u201d (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Evidence that the queen was gone came a few days later: The former hive space was quiet, with only a few bees hanging around in desultory fashion, a signal that the nest had indeed lost its leader. It was Monday morning, and Capone had returned to do some reconnaissance before replacing the original trim pieces and caulking the opening where the bees had entered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian
Facility Services carpenter Matt Capone tastes the \u201cBobcat Blend\u201d honey. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mason commended Bates for calling in a beekeeper rather than an exterminator. “100 percent credit,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that the Bates hive was not only healthy but had apparently survived at least one winter, if not more, was important, he said. Many wild honeybee hives die off each winter, and commercially maintained hives typically rely on treatments to control mites that can decimate hives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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