BEE REMOVAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA
Bee Removers in South Africa
While bees are essential for pollination and food production it occasionally necessary to remove them; mainly due to swarming or hive building in inappropriate places resulting in inconvenience or possible danger to humans and animals.
Bees can bring in the money
The are inhabitants of rural areas that have taken bee-keeping to heart and brought themselves back from the brink of starvation and turned their bee-keeping activities into a fully fledged business, allowing them to prosper. In some cases people have even turned a hobby into a profession, leaving behind the corporate world and making their living by following their passion.
But it is hard work
But any bee keeper worth his salt will tell you that it is hard work. Sure, the bees fly off, collect pollen and nectar and bring it back to the hive where the honey is made. But the bees need to be kept pest and parasite free, there needs to be a good supply of food for them and of course the honeycomb has to be collected and the honey prepared for sale. There is enough to keep a bee farmer or apiarist busy all day. If you are going to sell your honey commercially there are standards and requirements which need to be adhered to.
Getting stung often is definitely to be expected, you are, after all, invading their home and the bees will do what they need to, to protect the hive. And the work you do in and around the hives will be done in heavy protective gear which can get hot and uncomfortable.
Hiring out your bees
The demand for colonies of bees to pollinate crops has steadily been
increasing over the past few years. This is due to the increased food
requirements across the globe and also because of the massive decrease
in the worlds bee population. More than a third of the world's foodstuff
depends on being pollinated by bees. In fact it was Albert Einstein who
had the theory that if all the bees in the world disappeared famine would
follow shortly there after.
Farmers will hire hives and colonies of bees from a bee-keeper and house
them on their land during the season when the different crops need to
be pollinated. A special bonus in doing this is that there is a different
kind of honey every few months as the different crops get pollinated.
So apart from the income derived from selling his honey, the bee-keeper will need to work hard to ensure that his bees are strong and healthy when they are moved to the different farms.
What happens when bees stray?
Occasionally the moving of the hives may not go as planned and a colony may decide to move away and make a home for themselves elswhere. If they choose a place that is in conflict with the human inhabitants a bee remover will usually remove them and in most cases return them to a farm or a bee-keeper.