OTTUMWA —
The easy way to do something isn’t always the right way. Take, for example, the beehive hidden inside Dave Frushour’s tree.
“I didn’t even know I had a beehive until the tree came down,” said the Ottumwa man Thursday.
After last weekend’s storm, he grabbed his chainsaw and began cutting into the wood — launching a cloud of bees into the air. He knew then. They were also crawling around the part of the tree where their home was located.
“Being in ag, with the chemicals I have, I could have killed them easily,” he said. “But also, being in ag, I know there’s a worldwide shortage of honey bees.”
That means fewer bees to pollinate flowers, fruit trees, even vegetable gardens. Without bees, there’d be apple trees without properly developed apples — that’s what a biologist for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife told the Courier recently.
“I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do,” Frushour said.
So he called the local “bee guy,” Gerald Bradley, who wanted to see the bees recovered but recommended another beekeeper, Jim Marshall for the actual job.
“They were in a tree that had fallen from the storm, which is a possible danger to people in the area,” Marshall said.
He and wife, Tina, drove down this week from their place, “Marsh Hill” between Eddyville and Oskaloosa. He estimates the hive housed 20,000 bees.
“He charges $75 per extraction, which was fine with me,” said Frushour, the homeowner.
Forty years ago, Frushour had some beekeeping experiences (not all of them good ...), so had a feeling he wasn’t in much danger.
“There’s mad bees and happy bees. These were friendly bees,” Frushour said.
So while waiting for the expert to show up, he spent hour after hour cutting the tree into pieces with his chainsaw, mere feet from the hive.
That wasn’t as dangerous as it sounds, Marshall said, at least in this case.
“Those bees were one of the most docile groups I’ve ever been around,” he said.
But technically, he said, a swarm is a free-moving group of bees which may, for example, land on a tree limb. This was what he called “a cut out,” and he’d be willing to come back if other Ottumwans needed his services. In fact, a nearby neighbor had bees, and the beekeeper went over to capture them, too. He puts them in a hive at Marsh Hill and collects the honey.
The capture of the bees this week drew attention from neighbors and passing motorists, who stopped to watch.
“It’s a really intriguing process,” said Frushour. “He was in there with a chainsaw. They actually cut the tree apart, then extract the honeycomb, put it in frames, and uses a vacuum system on the tree to suck out the bees.”
Beekeeper Bradley, he said, helped with the entire process in order to become more familiar with it. The more people trained, the more bees that are saved, and that’s a good thing, Frushour said, for the environment and for people who have a sweet tooth.
“I did get some of the honey, and it was really sweet,” Frushour said.
Local News
Related Photos
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Gerald Bradley and Jim Marshall work to remove honey bees from a fallen tree near Elm Street and Vaness Avenue Tuesday night. The team used a vacuum to remove the bees from the tree and were still in search of the queen. Tina Marshall of Oskaloosa was also a part of the effort. Tracy Goldizen/The Courier
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Honey bees, or feral bees, that had already been removed from the fallen tree swarmed nearby. Homeowner Dave Frushour said that while he had the knowledge and chemicals to kill the bees (which is also less expensive), he decided to have them properly removed due to the declining honeybee population worldwide. Tracy Goldizen/The Courier
Honey bee swarm revealed by thunderstorm
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