Norm's Other Honey
Services
Hives managed/ Swarms Removed/ Lectures/ Beard of Bees
Maintaining hives and instruction on hive maintenance
If you would like Norm to build a hive, install it on your property, fill it with bees, care for them and cultivate them all the season long, he can do that. If you would like to try to maintain your own hive, but would like to have Norm come over to give you advice and guidance from time to time, that is also fine. If you would like Norm to teach you how to manage your own hive that either you or he builds, that is great, too. In short, for anything to do with setting up and managing a hive, Norm can help. He has many long-term satisfied customers in the area that would be happy to provide testimonials. If you would like references from happy clients, please ask. Costs vary depending on what service is provided. Please feel free to inquire, even if you are simply curious.
Why would I want honeybees on my property?
There are many advantages to having honeybees on one’s property. The obvious answer is that, if you have honeybees, you end up with honey. Another reason to keep bees is to pollinate your flower or vegetable garden or trees. Norm has some customers who have hives in their gardens or on their grounds simply to watch them fly.
Do I have enough room for a hive on my property? I have very little space.
Probably there is enough room. People in Manhattan, for example, successfully keep beehives on apartment balconies and rooftops. Norm’s backyard is quite small, but he has had up to five good yielding hives there at one time.
What about my neighbors? Can they complain or have the hive removed?
No one can stop the neighbors from complaining about bees, or barking dogs, or much else, but with some gentle education (and the occasional bottle of honey), neighbors usually quickly come to understand that the bees pose no threat to their safety or enjoyment of their own yards. If, for some sad reason you are not able to see eye to eye with your neighbor, you can rest assured that you are well within your rights to keep bees on your property (unlike chickens, for example, for which you would need the permission of neighboring property owners, bees can be kept without any such consent.) Bees will take off and return to their hive and not stay in the general area, so as long as the hive is not directly facing a neighbor’s front door or backyard hot tub, there should be no issues with disturbing neighbors.
Sometimes swarms of honeybees find a comfortable dwelling in a chimney, take up residence in a kitchen wall, or make their abode in the low branch of a tree overhanging a swing set. Attempts to remove these on your own is not the wisest option (unless like Norm, you have a protective suit, gloves, and unusual equipment such as a specially designed low-suction vacuum to suck them up without harming them. All of this and the most important thing: the nerve to walk into a cloud of buzzing, stinging bees.)
Norm will capture and remove most swarms, and will do so without damaging them. Norm will capture the swarm, and either hive it and put the bees to work for him (with competitive wages and excellent benefits) or will find them a happy home in an old tree or rock wall somewhere far, far away from your child’s sandbox, your pool house, or your front porch. He will not harm them, or let them harm you.
Why should I NOT call an exterminator to get rid of my bees?
Most exterminators will poison bees found in your home, killing them, and leaving harmful pesticides in and around your home. Norm would never do that. For one thing, it pains him to harm even a drone. For another thing, if you have a colony of honeybees in your wall, and they are poisoned, you will very likely be left with hundreds of pounds of wax, honey, and dead bees in your wall. This will attract more insects and vermin, and the melting wax and dripping honey will cause severe damage to your electrical, plumbing, ventilation system, etc. In short, it is better to remove the hive than to leave it to rot within the walls. Also, Norm does not think pumping poison into the Earth is cool and prefers not to do it.
Besides taking good care of bees, Norm also has a lot of experience talking about bees. He has worked with bees all over the world as well as here at home. For instance, last year he was awarded a grant through US-AID to assist beekeepers in Zimbabwe, southern Africa. He went there for a month to teach basic beekeeping skills to the Shona tribe and various people in the region. Norm also taught and learned different methods for rearing bees. Aside from Africa, Norm has also worked with beekeepers in Guatemala and Japan, not to mention all over the U.S.A. If you would like Norm to speak to your class, church, synagogue, club, etc., e-mail him for more information and rates. If in season, for no additional charge Norm can bring along an observation hive, through which you may watch bees perform most of the functions that they do on a daily basis, through a safe, glass, fully enclosed hive.
What better way to entertain your friends, family, or co-workers than having a person wearing a beard of bees show up at your function or gathering? During the warm months when the bees are buzzing, Norm will bring a group of bees to your gathering and attach a bear of bees to his son Andrew, or to any person of your choosing (with their consent, of course.) E-mail Norm at beekeeperc@aol.com for more information and pricing. This is safe for those watching and we are pretty sure that it is safe for the person wearing the beard of bees, too.
If you would like to contact Norm with any question, please do so at beekeeperc@aol.com