My Home is Your Hive

Honey, what's that buzzing noise?

Beekeepers remove 700,000 bees from man's home
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Lake Worth resident Norm Gitzen didn't mind the more than half-million bees living in the roof of his house until recently.

Rather, he said, they were "kind of mesmerizing," and he often sweetened his morning coffee with honey dripping from the hives.

But when the bees started coming into the house, stinging him and his nephew, his love of that cohabitation changed. Local beekeepers started removing at least 700,000 bees from a tower above his breakfast nook on Tuesday, filling four buckets with honey weighing close to 65 pounds.

[...] The weight of the hives could collapse Gitzen's roof, while the honey could attract ants and rodents, Hartmann said.

Valentine Toncz, who helped remove the bees, will keep half of them, Gitzen said, while the rest will be returned to his house -- in bee boxes.