Bee Hive Removed from Apartments

What looked to be six sections of a honey cone next to a spotlight near the roof of the Villas Del Sol apartments, turned out to be only a food storage area for the worker bees. It was part of a much bigger hive.

Walter Schumacher, owner of Central Texas Bee Rescue, estimates the hive is home to somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 honey bees.

"It's an old hive that makes that,” Schumacher said. “They ran out of space and it's quite rare. When you see it that much that means they had years to build where they were and they built an exterior so the worker bees didn't have to go back into the hive."

Inside the hive is the colony, the main honey supply and the queen. Schumacher says his crew, with safety suits on, used a wet vac to get the bees into a temporary hive.

"It creates a soft suction for the bees to be pulled into this trapping box so we can collect the entire hive including the queen."

But unaware they were being relocated to the Hill Country, with more room to expand their hive, some of the bees were not happy.

Schumacher, who was stung 3-4 times including on the lip, says the bees were doing what they do; protecting their queen.

"We were all stung over there after we opened the enclosed hive. Once they opened the enclosed structure, then it became 'Oh my God we're being invaded' and they went and attacked everybody who they thought could be invading their colony."

Schumacher says Central Texas Bee Rescue sells the honey from the hives they relocate. He says some of the money helps them fund the free work they do for the elderly, people with young children and those with bee-sting allergies.

For questions or comments about this story, email james.irby@foxtv.com