Beekeeper removes thousands of bees from Belle Vernon yard
BELLE VERNON – When Southwest Regional police Chief John Hartman became a police officer, he never expected to deal with this kind of sting.
And he wasn’t sure if Wednesday morning’s check on a bee colony at Bernadette Rodger’s Washington Street home would end in injury or success.
“It looked like a rug hanging over the fence,” Hartman said of the mass of 7,000 to 8,000 bees. “But you could see that the bees were moving around. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
The honey bees clustered on top of each other to form a thick swarm about the size of a basketball on both sides of the fence.
They seemed pretty oblivious to the outside world, Hartman said.
He and another lieutenant came within a foot of the colony without incident, though they had two paramedics on site in case anyone got stung.
Beekeeper Sonny Markish, of Brownsville, who was called to safely capture and relocate the bees, said the swarm of honey bees had divided from a larger colony and was looking for a new home.
Markish operates Sonny’s Honey and said that starting in late May and through the end of July, he gets called as often as twice a week to capture bees.
Markish sprayed the colony with sugar water, which kept them occupied as he brushed them into two ventilated 5-gallon buckets.
“As he got the brush out, I thought, ‘Here we go,’ ” Hartman said, bracing for the worst.
But Markish was able to just sweep them up.
“It was lucky they were on the fence and easy to capture,” Markish added. “Mission accomplished.”
Hartman said everyone’s primary concern was to move the colony without hurting the bees.
“My understanding is that there’s a real problem,” Hartman said, citing reports detailing the effects of the rapidly declining bee population.
“In days gone by, we would have turned a hose on them. But – it sounds cliche – we all need to be more environmentally conscious.”
Hartman said he was proud of his police, and Belle Vernon’s volunteer fire company, which assisted.
“Today, we did our share,” Hartman said. “No one got hurt, the bees were saved and the colony continues to exist. Everyone did a good job.”