It has been a cold January 2022, and this past week was also, a very busy week for me, no roaming around, looking for new interesting photos and stories! So, on Saturday Jan. 29, a cold, windy and snowy day, I am perusing through my archives, looking for some photos and a story for my Photo of the Week article!

Going through my email travel logs, I came across this email, about the removal of a huge beehive at Rutherfurd Hall back on June 22, 2010, however, the date is irrelevant, it is the incident itself and how it develops and unfolds that is important and actually pretty interesting to witness!

METHODOLOGY PRESENTING THIS STORY

My introduction is the above Story Behind Photo of the Week. I had emailed the original email to myself, so I didn’t have to rewrite or copy and paste anything. I did delete several of the photos attached to this email, however, I created a Flickr album of this incident and have included a link below, so you may see all the photos. Below is the story as I told it 12 years ago!

THE STORY

This is one of those events that comes right out of the blue and you just are very thankful you had the time to participate! Yesterday, I checked my phone messages and one of the calls was from Dr. Frederiks, Superintendent of Allamuchy Elementary School, advising that a beekeeper had been summoned to remove a hive from the Rutherfurd Mansion – he thought I might be interested in getting some photos! I was enroute practically before hanging up the phone.

The nest in question was under one of the corner eaves of the second floor. When the beekeeper arrived and looked around he advised, we would be doing this from inside the building. Game plan: punch a hole in the wall or ceiling and remove the bees and nest.

This kind of got, Charlie Fineran thinking, “Inside, in a confined room, new hole banged into a wall near a large bee nest, doesn’t that equal a huge amount of irate bees, coming out of that new hole, in that confined space, with Charlie Fineran standing there taking pictures!!??” “How bad do I want these photos?”

The bee-keeper then asked if I would like one of his protective suits – after several questions from me like do these suits leak etc. I using good common sense started donning my beekeepers suit. I just wish he had size 12 boots! I was sweating from just getting into that suit and I haven’t even entered the building. Ever try to wipe your brow or scratch an itch with a protective covering? But, those complaints were basically over-ridden with the thought about “hope this DON’T LEAK!!!”

We are now carrying all the equipment up to the room. In several of the photos you will notice a screen cylinder, placed in the shop vac to hold the bees. I am the only one in protective gear and the only one obviously WARM! The bee-keeper then proceeded to listen to the walls and then started banging away with a hammer. Next, again with no protective clothing at all, he shines a light in and starts groping around with his BARE HANDS! (His hand was still a little swollen from his last job) (This is the same guy constantly telling us not to worry) This suit is starting to feel more and more comfortable.

That first hole verified where the bees were but they were still behind some structure, We need another hole! Now we go in through the ceiling and now we begin to hit paydirt, the hive. The keeper, still has absolutely no protective clothing on and now climbs up the ladder with the smoke pot and starts puffing smoke up into the hive, I make sure I know where the door is and began taking pictures. I again asked the question where are all the bees? On one hand, I was picturing in my mind spectacular photos of a swarm of bees; on the other hand I am actually quite comfortable with not wondering about whether the suit will stop a sting! Besides everyone else is here unprotected, this is not quite the way I had envisioned this operation going down.

The next phase of the operation was, again unprotected: shoving the shopvac nozzle up into the hive and removing bees – I am distracted by watching all these little dark objects going through the opaque vacumn hose into the shop-vac, sure hope that doesn’t leak! I don’t know about everyone else but I had a lot of wondering what ifs through-out this job. Finally, the bee-keeper comes down off the ladder and puts on his protective shirt with the hood and dons a thin pair of gloves – that was it, no pants, no boots. From this time on, it was really quite amazing, to watch. The routine for the next hour or so was to go into the nest with the vacuum, then a chisel-like tool, and bring out a hand full of beehive. Some of the cones were dry and empty, some coated and oozing with a beautiful clear golden honey! Everyone else is periodically swiping the cones and saying how delicious it is and here I am having difficulty trying to wipe my brow so I can see what is going on much less trying to get a taste of honey!

I think with the above descriptions you can kind of figure out what the pictures show. Keep in mind how the photos change from a clean room and beekeeper to a dripping mess! When you come to the photo of the one bee, notice the enlarged legs: that is a bee that has returned from the field with a supply of pollen; they carry it on their legs. Some interesting bee facts: most of these bees are less than six weeks old, they don’t live to long, almost all are female, probably over 99%, the males or drones are useless, other than mating with the queen, I can just imagine some of the thoughts after that statement! The keeper figures he got about 5,000 bees, he believes the original queen left this hive a few days ago, when a large swarm was reported on the tree just outside the building. He is not sure he captured another queen with this operation and if he didn’t he will introduce a new queen when he gets home in a couple of days. Did you know, that if a queen is killed or dies the workers can actually create a new queen by feeding several regular eggs with what is known as royal jelly? If the eggs hatch at the same time there is a fight to the death and the winner is the new queen. I never did get my exciting swarm, I never did see any sign of aggression at all, the keeper was right they are too busy with their work especially after the smoke pot to worry about his intrusion into the nest.

Bottom line, if I had to do it over again, I would still wear the shirt with hood and gloves – I could then focus on the camera work without looking over my shoulder. The keeper was stung about five times and my friend Roy was stung a couple of times and he wasn’t there the whole time.

The keeper made the comment about this and all jobs. If you want to do it right and get rid of the problem – it is messy and damaging. If you only spray to kill and then leave the nest, honey starts to drip and stain things, also attracting mice and other intruders to search the walls for the honey. For your info, those two garbage cans weighed about fifty pounds and that’s all honey. Forty to 50 pounds of honey is needed to get through a typical winter for a large hive.

I would like to thank Dr. Frederiks for keeping me in mind for an interesting photo op and visit. I would also like to thank my many friends over the years who reach out and invite people, like myself, to special events and places so that they may be shared with others.

Hope you enjoyed your visit!

Usually I would end with Enjoy your Open Space, in this case, enjoy your confined space in this room!!

Please visit my Flickr site for more photos – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72177720296301897

Charlie Fineran

Director of Open Space

Allamuchy Township Environmental Commission – Chairman

Allamuchy Historical Society – President