Un-bee-lievable
By Staff
Beekeeper saves colony of bees at old Puckett house
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
A colony of honeybees holed up in a front porch column of the old Robert Warren Puckett house on Barkley Street was rescued by an Eva beekeeper last week after a wrecking crew moved in with heavy equipment to take down the historic old house.
Bob Simmons captured part of the bees on his first visit by using a ladder to reach the entrance of their self-made hive at the top of the 24-ft. column. He then cut an opening in the column and used a battery-powered vacuum to transfer the bees from their hive to wooden boxes.
"I filled four boxes," Simmons said. "That's about 20,000 bees or an average size colony, and they've been in there for a few years."
The house wreckers contributed to the rescue effort by removing the column and lowering it to the ground. Simmons returned two days later to remove the remainder of colony, the queen bee and four honeycombs.
"Upon examination of the honeycombs he found evidence of an invasion of what he called an "African beetle." "I'll have to isolate the colony from the rest of my bees until I can get rid of the beetle," he said. "Otherwise, it would eventually destroy the colony."
Simmons learned about the bee colony from Peggy Miller who lives across the street from the Puckett house.
"I knew the bees were in there," Miller said. "I had observed them coming and going for several years and I was concerned about their survival with the house coming down. I didn't know of a beekeeper so I called the County Extension office to see if they knew of one. They put me in touch with Mr. Simmons."
"He did a good job. It was interesting to see him work. I'm glad the bees are now in a safe place," she added.
Simmons said he keeps bees as a hobby out of his concern for their population decline.
"It used to be you'd see beehives at nearly every farm you passed by. That's not the case anymore. They're such an important part of our ecology. I wish others would take up the practice," he pointed out.
