Much to our team’s surprise, hundreds of honeybees recently set up camp at Duval Asphalt’s Philips Highway plant. The bees built a hive under a tarp covering our EZ Street Cold Mix pile! We recognize that honeybees are an important part of our ecosystem, so we immediately sought to have them safely moved! Duval Asphalt Production Manager, TJ Young, reached out to local beekeeper Scott Greenwald for help.
Greenwald met Young at Duval Asphalt’s plant to inspect the swarm. He brought a “bee condo” with him to safely relocate the bees. Using a special eucalyptus smoke, he sprayed the bees to relax them into a more lethargic state. This allowed him to remove the queen bee from the hive and relocate her to the “condo.” Bees will always follow their queen, so once she is relocated, the rest move, too.
To help transfer the bees more efficiently, Greenwald cut a portion of the honeycomb from the EZ Street hive and used rubber bands to attach it to a wooden frame. Greenwald placed the frame, along with the queen and a large group of worker bees, in the new condo and within a few hours, all the bees made their way there. The bees will continue expanding the honeycomb and by the next day, the new comb will extend to all sides of the frame.
“It is important to safely relocate the bees,” said Young. “They provide so many benefits to the environment, so we wanted to send them off to a new home where they can continue to thrive.”
Greenwald is licensed through the Florida Department of Agriculture and a registered member of the Jacksonville Bee Association.
