Ashley Farrell Landscaping called us about a ball of bees way up in a pepper tree on the Mesa next to Lazy Acres. Turned out the owners had no idea the bees were there and their daughter is allergic to bees. The bees were drawing comb and settling in but they were exposed to the elements and with much needed rain in the forecast we decided to remove them from the tree, give them a proper hive box and relocate them to one Santa Barbara Hives' apiaries.
The bees had drawn comb around several branches and were establishing themselves. We cut the branches, placed the ball of bees into a nuc box and lowered the nuc box to the ground with a rope. Once on the ground we were able to separate the brood comb and secure it to frames with rubber bands to be placed in a hive box.
With the brood comb secured to frames in their new hive box, we waited 'til sunset for the bees to settle in so we close up the hive and relocate it to one of Santa Barbara Hives' apiaries so they can thrive.