TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE

A large swarm of honeybees decided to make a pit stop high atop the Hometown Kitchen & Bath building last week, but they were eventually coralled and no one was stung.
The City of Minneota was first notified about the bees to see what could be done about getting them out of the business district. Brandon Hennen, who has been in the beekeeping business for six years, was called to come out and help remove the buzzing insects.
Donning beekeeper clothing, Hennen and his friend Jerick Gossen, who got involved in the apiary business a year or two ago, used the city's bucket truck to ascend to the top southeast corner of the building to entice the bees into a hive.
"I'm afraid of heights, so I made Jerick go up," laughed Hennen.
Hennen is unsure where the bees came from but could have escaped one of Charlie Pesch's hives and made their way to the nearby business district.
"I contacted Charlie and he said it was possible they came from his hives, but we aren't sure," said Hennen. "I know they didn't come from my hives because I had just checked them."
When Gossen reached the top of the bucket, he began "scooping" the bees into the hive he had with him. Soon, the majority of the bees were inside the hive.
"The hive we had didn't have an entrance reducer on it, so I went to go and get one," said Hennen. "An entrance reducer makes the hole much smaller and makes it less of a chance that the bees will get out."
By the time Hennen returned, though, the bees had already made their way out of the hive and were back where they started at the top corner of the building.
This time, Hennen used a frame of eggs from another hive, which makes it much more likely that once the bees are inside the hive, they are less likely to exit.
“That seemed to work well,” said Hennen."We probably got 90 percent of them into the hive. It was the craziest thing. They just marched into the hive one after another like ants."
Hennen took the bees to where he has his other hives.
A few days later, Hennen noticed a small golf-ball sized swarm of bees back at the top of the building, but not big enough for a need to remove them.
This was the third swarm of bees that Hennen has had to remove from a building or property this summer.