Bees numbering in the thousands invaded a tree outside of First United Methodist Church, 179 S. Indiana St., downtown Warsaw, Thursday. While people driving by quickly rolled up their car windows, two local bee hobbyists calmly took care of what they estimated to be 5,000 bees including a queen. “The hive got crowded and half left to form a new colony. We’re going to help them out and give them a home,” said Lewis Shepherd. “Everywhere the queen is, the workers will go.” Robie Prater and Shepherd had their full beekeepers bee suits on, though Prater went without gloves. “I work for Lake City Bank. They called me since I already work for them,” Prater said. “We’ve had two swarms the last two weeks. The other was one block over.” Shepherd said lots of houses have bees in them, or bees will set up their hive in a hollow tree. “When they get crowded, they swarm,” he said. “Normally, when they swarm like this, they won’t sting you. Unless you mash them.” After Prater cut off a few limbs of the tree to work, he then cut the limb with the bees on it off and carefully passed the bees on to Shepherd. Shepherd laid the bees and limb on a man-made box hive. Prater then “smoked” the bees to calm them down and convince them to go into the box. “Robie will take the box to his house,” Shepherd said, noting that he has 14 hives himself and some are over 4 feet tall. “Tomorrow they would have been in someone’s house or a tree.” If Shepherd and Prater hadn’t removed the swarm, a scout bee would have found a hole in a home or tree and reported back to the hive where it was. Then the bees would have moved the whole nest to that location, Shepherd explained. As time passed, the bees made the box hive their new home. Prater gave it time before he removed it from that location. “They know the queen’s in there, so eventually they will go into where she is,” Shepherd said. Shepherd said it is true that bees are dying off. He’s had 11 hives die off the last two years himself. Bees are important for the pollination of plants. “It’s a bee mite that will get in a hive and kill a colony of bees,” he said. “I understand and appreciate what farmers do, but I don’t know if the insecticide that farmers are spraying while they’re flying over fields is killing bees – but that’s my opinion and just my opinion.” If anyone else has a bee issue, Prater said they can contact him at 574-377-2118. “They’re really an exciting thing to deal with,” Shepherd said.
