Beehive on Player Street
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
City of Darlington workers got quite a surprise Tuesday afternoon while clearing away a Player Street tree downed by Hurricane Matthew: the tree held a lively and productive honeybee colony. Wisely, the city workers eased away from the agitated swarm and called in bee expert Rick Moore, proprietor of Rick’s Honeybee Removal of Hartsville.
“They’re not aggressive. You can walk right up to them,” said Moore of the flitting honeybees. “They’re good girls, they’re just homeless. So we’re gonna give them a new place to live and put ’em to work making honey.”
Moore cleared away brush from the hive site (buried in the hollow of a downed oak tree) and sprayed lemongrass oil inside a wooden box hive – a trick of scent and pheromones that calms the bees and lures them into the new hive for transport.
The honeybees on Player Street were from a single colony, but had split into two groups. During the ruckus as the tree was sawn apart by street crews, the hive’s queen had relocated to some nearby brush. Moore gently removed the branch where the queen’s coterie of protective drones huddled around her like living armor, and he tapped the clump of bees against the new hive until they began dispersing and crawling inside.
The hive within the downed oak tree held a two-foot piece of honeycomb, and Moore explained that the worker bees would drain this honeycomb dry and transport their liquid gold to the colony’s new home.
Shortly after Moore began the relocation of the Player Street colony, city workers arrived and reported that two more bee hives had been found near the Darlington Rescue Squad building and at a home on Kirven Street. Moore did not seem surprised, and noted that honeybee colony discoveries always rise in the aftermath of storms when folks begin clearing away fallen trees. He says 2016, with its volatile weather, has been a particularly active year.
“This one right here is probably about the hundredth bee call I’ve been on this year, give or take a few,” Moore said, clearly happy about the booming business and the chance to save more bees.
Holding up the honeycomb rife with bee activity, Moore tore off a piece of the beeswax dripping with honey and popped it into his mouth.
“Nature’s chewing gum,” he said, smiling.
