Nov. 27, 2024

My husband and I put up a screech owl box a couple of years ago. We were hoping to attract an owl we spotted in our suburban Fort Worth neighborhood. For two years, the box stood empty.

Then in July, after a rain shower, we noticed a swarm of bees covering the entrance.

We thought they were just getting out of the rain. Ha!

The cluster of bees grew. By late October, a honeycomb protuded from the opening.

At first frustrated by the squatters, we quickly became intrigued by these new residents.

But I wondered — was this normal behavior for bees? Was it safe to let them hang around?

I called Ryan Giesecke, president of the Texas Beekeepers Association and the owner of a Dallas honeybee removal service.

To my surprise, Giesecke said screech owl boxes commonly attract honeybees. 

“That little screech owl box is just about the perfect size for honeybees in Texas,” Giesecke said. 

Farther north, honeybees might move into barn owl or barred owl boxes, which offer more room to store more food for harsher winters. But in Texas, screech owl boxes and, even blue bird houses, are perfect starter homes for honeybees, he said.

“I tell people who have screech owl boxes — you're either going to get screech owls, squirrels or honeybees. And my impression is, whoever gets there first, gets it.”

LEAVE THEM BE?

The reporter's owl box is mounted on a 10-foot metal pole. Photo by Julie Thibodeaux

I asked Giesecke if it was OK to let the bees stay.

The answer is, it depends.

Gesiecke said the average person is typically in no more danger of getting stung from having a colony high up in a tree than having bee visitors in their garden.

However, if bees are located in a home’s structure and/or near high traffic areas, it’s probably a good idea to contact a humane bee removal expert. 

Those with allergies to bees should also consider the risks.

In our case, Giesecke said since our owl box was mounted on a tall metal poll out of the way, we could likely coexist and enjoy their benefits.

“There’s a lot of value to having bees in the yard — education value, appreciation value,” he said. Being avid gardeners, we also appreciated the pollination services.

While we were mainly curious, Giesecke said most of the homeowners that call him are nervous — even panicked —about discovering a colony of bees on their property. 

His first step is allaying their fears.

“I start by explaining why they don't need to be so terrified of this,” Giesecke said. “I get people to calm down and consider what is the best option for them and the bees.”

Many people fear the infamous killer bees that have infiltrated the North American honey bee population but he said homeowners should not assume that’s what they’re dealing with.

Walter Schumacher of American Honey Bee Protection Agency in Austin told Green Source DFW, he’s heard about homeowners that were duped by unscrupulous pest control companies posing as beekeepers and charging exorbitant fees for killing bees they claim were unable to be relocated.

“They stir the beehive up as they're in their bee suits and they're protected. And they come and knock on your door and tell you, ‘Hey. These are Africanized bees. We’ve got to kill them.’”

BEE ROLES

I realized how little I knew about honeybees’ complex lifestyles.

Honeybees arrived in North America in the 1600s during European colonization. 

According to Giesecke, honeybees make honey because, unlike native bees to the area, they don't have a true dormancy cycle in the wintertime, he said. 

Honeybees routinely take up residence in boxed-in eaves. Courtesy of Ryan Giesecke.

“In the winter, they do pretty much what people do. They stay home and eat sugar and stay warm. They eat the food they stored up when it was nicer to go outside.”

Like squirrels, honeybees store more food for the winter than they strictly need. Because they make surplus honey, humans can harvest their food storage without killing off a colony. 

There are three types of castes in a colony: queens, workers and drones. Queens and workers are all female bees. Drones are all male.

The queen’s job is laying eggs and directing the colony. 

She chooses whether or not to fertilize eggs as she lays them. A fertilized egg becomes a female bee. An unfertilized egg becomes a male bee.

The drones’ only job is to mate with virgin queens. The drones die after mating.

The worker bees perform all of the other tasks to maintain the hive. Young workers start out raising babies and house cleaning. Then they take on the more strenuous work, such as building the honeycomb, packing nectar and capping the comb. Eventually, they move up to the most risky activities, such as guarding the hive, scouting for water and gathering nectar. 

They also collect plant material that creates a sealant known as “bee glue,” used for repairs on the comb.

The workers even serve as undertakers, removing dead bees and any other critters that die in the house. 

Giesecke said he once came across a bee hive in a wall, where a rat had fallen down into the cavity. The bees had mummified it — wrapping it with bee glue, a technique for tidying up carcasses and debris too heavy to toss out.

STAYING ALIVE

Our owl box hive was buzzing with bees but I was shocked to learn that colonies typically consist of about 20,000 to 40,000 bees. 

A swarm covers a bird house entrance. Courtesy of Ryan Giesecke.

“It's almost an unsustainable situation for a colony to get under about 8,000,” Giesecke said.

When a colony outgrows a space, a new queen is raised. Then the old queen and half the colony leave to a start a new hive.

That event is called swarming.  

One of the risks of having bees in your backyard is the chance they could swarm. The swarm might move into a space less convenient or a yard where the homeowners are less tolerant. 

Beekeepers keep their bees from swarming by expanding their bee boxes.

Meanwhile, swarms face a daunting challenge. Only one out of seven colonies survives the first year.

“The colony that's leaving has the benefit of an established, productive queen, but takes the gamble of finding a new nest site and starting over,” said Giesecke. “It’s their way of dividing the risks.”

Honeybees swarm in a wooden spool. Courtesy of Ryan Giesecke.

The parent colony is left with the youthful new queen. However, her first task is to travel up to several miles to find a drone outside the colony to mate with. 

During her excursion, the new queen bee can mate multiple times. 

“She comes home having carried all the genetic material she will need for a lifetime of laying eggs,” said Giesecke. 

However, during that flight she risks being snatched up by a hungry bird.

“And if she dies, that colony has no way to raise another brood. If she dies, the colony dies.”

BEE-GINNING

Giesecke has been in the bee removal business for nearly a decade. His entry into the field began when he was at a party and a bee landed on him. He stayed calm on the outside even though he was freaking out inside. A friend noticed his stoicism and told him he should be a bee keeper. 

The friend, who himself was a beekeeper, offered to teach him everything he knew.

“He then talked my ear off about bees for like, two hours,” said Giesecke.

A beekeeping friend told Ryan Giesecke he had the perfect demeanor for working with bees. Courtesy of Ryan Giesecke.

Then one day, the friend called him up and told him he was moving.

“Remember when you said you wanted to be a beekeeper?” he told Giesecke. Uh, no, not exactly, Giesecke said. The friend then talked him into taking his two working beehives.

Giesecke was quickly hooked.

His bee removal career came about serendipitously.

The first year he took in the hives, his aunt and uncle and parents both had bees move into the walls of their house. He was enlisted to help and discovered a knack for it.

“It was just meant to be, right?” he joked.

WEIRD LOCATIONS

Ryan Giesecke inspects the top of a business sign for a colony. Courtesy of Ryan Giesecke.

So where else do bees hole up that has homeowners calling Giesecke?

Over the years, the most common places Giesecke has removed bees from are tree cavities, boxed-in eaves, between floor joists and uninsulated garage walls. 

Some of the more unusual places he’s removed bees from include: 

• On the 13th floor of a building in downtown Fort Worth. The colony was living in a hollow ornamental feature and the building manager was having some renovation done.

“Putting guys on scaffolding with bees in the area was considered unsafe,” he said.

• Underneath a helicopter. “I got called out to remove bees from one of those house fire fighting helicopters out at Alliance airfield one year. The bees had moved in under the undercarriage of the helicopter while it was sitting on the airfield.”

• Under the hood of a car. He once removed bees from a pickup parked in a Deep Ellum parking lot.

MOVING DAY

If you find yourself needing bee removal, Giesecke advises to be sure to ask the bee removal company what method they’ll use to remove the bees and what they’re going to do with the colony afterwards.

A colony moves into a bee hive where their queen and honeycomb has been relocated. Courtesy of Ryan Giesecke.

He’s heard of bee removers simply dumping the bees on the side of road.

Giesecke, a bee whisperer, practices a more humane and less disruptive approach when removing hives. 

He avoids using a bee vacuum and shuns pesticides. 

When possible, he lures bees out by moving the queen and the comb into a bee box first and restricting access to the old hive.

“I think bees are more likely to remain in the box successfully if they've chosen to move into it, rather than if I've pulled them into a bucket using a vacuum and then dumped them into it.” 

Relocation is typically very difficult and even fatal for most wildlife.

Giesecke transports the colony to his property where he allows them to recover for a year and regain their strength. 

“It is a hard transition being moved from a home where they were comfortable and established into a new location,” he said. “I want them close to home for me for at least that first year. I want to be able to help.”

He typically keeps 20 to 30 hives on his property. These become part of his other business as a bee colony manager. 

Unlike many beekeepers, he’s not particularly interested in honey.

“I get excited about bees, not bottles. I would rather be working bees than honey.”

His clients are landowners who want the bees on their property for agriculture tax incentives.

“They're considered an agricultural activity, just like having cattle grazing on a property is. So for properties five to 20 acres, you can see a positive impact on your property taxes as a result of having a beekeeping operation.”

BEES 1, OWLS 0

As for the future of our owl box, Giesecke said a typical bee colony in a screech owl box could live for up to five years. 

Honeycombs fill the ash dump door of a fireplace. Courtesy of Ryan Giesecke.

But even if we removed the bees now, owls will likely never move in, he said.

He said the box will retain the smell of wax, which will attract more bees.

Giesecke says he hangs old owl boxes around his beekeeping operation, which act as a bee magnet.

“Bees love a spot where bees have lived before,” he said. 

So the take away is — whether the bees stay or go, if we want to provide a home to owls in the future, we must start fresh.

“There’s not a scenario where you’re not going to have to a get new owl box,” he said.

BEE RESOURCES

This Green Source DFW article offers tips and resources.

Below are local and state bee organizations, which can offer advice and referrals.

Texas Honeybee Guild

Trinity Valley Beekeepers Association

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