[HN Gopher] 20k honey bees took over a tech company's empty offi...
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20k honey bees took over a tech company's empty office during
lockdown
Author : codev
Score : 246 points
Date : 2021-02-02 14:56 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (qz.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (qz.com)
| darkteflon wrote:
| I feel like there's a perfect metaphor in here somewhere.
| gnu8 wrote:
| For once the space was put to a productive use.
| corytheboyd wrote:
| lol I came in with the exact same take :p
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| This is an awesome use of VC funding that I whole-heartedly
| support!
| joncrane wrote:
| Cue the typical "Nature is Healing" especially because
| pollinators are under massive pressure due to pesticides and
| herbicides.
|
| Having said that, I'm glad they called a good beekeper who was
| able to rescue the hive.
|
| Also, I've heard that if you have a bee infestation in your attic
| for example, not to call an exterminator, but to call a
| beekeeper. Often these new hives are valuable to hobbyists and
| they are happy to come take care of it for free. There are
| apparently directories of local beekeepers all over the world
| that are fairly easy to find on a search engine.
| stuart78 wrote:
| I was thinking more along the lines of a pivot for the business
| into a new line of AI Honey.
| sunjester wrote:
| how much is a beekeeper compared to an exterminator?
| btgeekboy wrote:
| I called a local apiary to remove a wasp nest in the Seattle
| area. They charged a flat $200 for wasps, and $0 for bees.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Here in NZ, the beekeeper is free. They may reject the job
| though, as cutouts of colonies are horrible.
| jjcon wrote:
| I knew a beekeeper that would take them off peoples property
| for free since they could typically sell them or home them
| themselves - win win. I don't think that is uncommon.
| joncrane wrote:
| Beekeeper is generally free. Exterminator pricing varies
| based on locality and scale of the job.
|
| Some beekeepers in competitive localities will pay to come
| remove your hive.
| exabrial wrote:
| My dad and sisters are beekeepers. They run around all year to
| capture swarms. First, they try to capture the queen and mark
| her, then keep her extra safe in a special cage. Then they have
| a "bee vacuum" which is basically a shop vac hooked up to a
| bucket, both with a really low flow rate to avoid injuring the
| creatures. Most of the time, it's an entertaining process and
| the bees are as gentle as flies.
| lostlogin wrote:
| > They run around all year to capture swarms.
|
| There may be a difference in certain regions, but usually
| swarms are a spring thing, with another small reoccurrence in
| autumn. Mid summer is quiet and winter has none.
|
| This relates to the times at which a queen can mate - there
| are no male drones in winter (the females kicked them out!)
| and so any queen that hatched would be a virgin, and couldn't
| lay.
|
| Sometimes swarms will occur due to bees absconding to get
| away from High levels of disease. I have never seen this but
| high levels of varroa can cause it.
| exabrial wrote:
| The ones in the "off seasons" are usually very aggressive
| from what I've heard. They typically ran away from home to
| break away from some environmental stress I've been told?
| I'm not a beekeeper :) Just repeating what I've heard
| lostlogin wrote:
| This must be somewhere warms and with very mild winters?
|
| NZ is lucky to have fairly easy going bees - this doesn't
| mean that they are all friendly, just that Africanised
| bees are so much worse. There are accounts of them flying
| into smokers and putting them out. It's all rather
| intense.
| war1025 wrote:
| Our friends had a bee swarm show up in one of their trees
| this summer after a big storm. Their neighbor happens to do
| beekeeping, so he came over and helped them set up a hive
| for the swarm.
|
| I think they still have the bees. Haven't heard much about
| it lately.
| ilamont wrote:
| Can you elaborate on "most of the time"?
| yial wrote:
| The information about there being directories and how to handle
| it is amazing.
|
| Thank you for sharing. I'm filing this away in case I ever have
| to deal with an infestation.
| k1t wrote:
| It is illegal to kill bees in certain situations in California.
| An exterminator might refer you to a beekeeper just to avoid
| any potential liability.
| bluejekyll wrote:
| There are situations where beekeepers may not actually want
| to capture the hive. Like dangerous ladder work when the have
| is on a second or third story and only accessible from the
| outside.
|
| I luckily haven't needed to deal with this, but I do know of
| people who've "thought" they had a "honey bee" problem, but
| the exterminator came out and confirmed it was a "wasp"
| problem.
|
| This is an area where the intent of the law is good, but
| sometimes the real world issues of safety of acquiring the
| hive is complex enough that it's not safe to attempt, and
| it's not clear the law allows for that.
|
| (And it's not just CA that makes it illegal to kill bees,
| many states have similar laws)
| cabaalis wrote:
| I recommend watching Jeff Horchoff on YouTube. He is very
| polite and his bee removal videos are oddly calming. I've been
| subscribed for a year or two now.
|
| https://youtube.com/c/JeffHorchoff
| frockington1 wrote:
| Finding a hive that can survive the winter can be a multi-year
| event (at least for me it was). The hive which ended up
| surviving came from a captured swarm
| lostlogin wrote:
| What was the cause of the deaths?
|
| Here is usually varroa - I'm just contemplating getting my
| autumn treatments in, as the little horrors are actually
| visible on frames now. I hate them so much.
| sharkweek wrote:
| Yes! 100% call local beekeepers when possible for an almost
| always free removal. A beekeeper will sometimes even PAY you so
| they can come move the hive.
|
| No such luck with wasp and hornet nests though. Had to pay to
| have one of those removed from the siding in our house. And wow
| were they mad when the beekeeper started vacuuming them up.
|
| Got talking to the guy for a while, fascinating industry. He's
| very nervous about the next 20 years when it comes to
| honeybees.
| reaperducer wrote:
| What about carpenter bees? I've seen a lot of those around
| lately and have been thinking about checking the roof. Do
| they have the same value as honey bees?
| fersho311 wrote:
| Carpenter bees are awesome, they pollinate flowers (so we
| can have fruits in our backyard) and have an awesome short
| life of minding their own business.
| S_A_P wrote:
| They also have a voracious appetite for Georgia Pine
| which happens to be the material my inlaws summer home is
| made from. Not to be outdone, woodpeckers also enjoy
| eating a carpenter bee and their babies, so we end up
| with holes from the carpenter bees along with a string of
| holes made by woodpeckers in search of said bees.
|
| Im not really too worried about being stung by them, and
| I agree they generally dont want to mess with you unless
| you are actively messing with their burrow. I have taken
| to putting out sacrificial 2x4s each season that I pre-
| drill(3/4" holes seem to do the trick) to attract the
| bees to easier pickings. This helps quite a bit, but I
| still have to end up spraying a few holes in our siding
| and deck each year as it will soon be swiss cheese if I
| do not...
| zrail wrote:
| Sort of. We had carpenter bees in our deck one summer and
| they were incredibly agitated and aggressive whenever we
| tried to use it.
| winslow wrote:
| Yes! Carpenter bees are just as important as honey bees.
| While they don't create honey like honey bees do these
| carpenter bees are vital for pollination.
|
| Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_bee#Ecologi
| cal_signi...
| paulie_a wrote:
| In the past there were companies that would take a hornet
| hive for free. They'd drop it into a nitrogen filled
| container and sell the hornets for medical research
|
| My memory is fuzzy on the details but that's the gist of it
| lekanwang wrote:
| Reminds me of when a honeybee swarm occupied the parking lot
| behind our building and eventually mostly settled on a bike
| rack (this also happens to be the building of the downtown Palo
| Alto Philz). As a beekeeper, I was so excited that I emailed
| our head of ops and physical security in all caps asking if I
| could have them. After he called me to confirm that I wasn't
| trolling, he graciously offered to stand guard to keep folks
| away while I grabbed my bee suit to safely remove the bees and
| put them in a new home.
| drewdennison wrote:
| I remember that incident well and watching you comb the bees
| into their new home. Good times!
| reaperducer wrote:
| If it was a social media or ad tech company, I'd say let the bees
| have it. They do more good for society than either of the above.
| yial wrote:
| I'm always amazed at how quickly animals and insects can setup
| shop. I've experienced this a lot in commercial buildings.
|
| At my current office, we've had crows peck through the roof
| twice.
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| Try getting rid of a wasp nest. They will rebuild daily in the
| exact same spot and it's tough to get them to move on (and
| you're usually not as polite as with bees)
| Triv888 wrote:
| At my house I used to have about 5 new red wasp nest under
| the soffit every year... Very easy to get rid of with that
| wasp spray that goes 15-20ft if you catch it early.
| jancsika wrote:
| I like this stonk.
| dave_sid wrote:
| I wonder if they decided to go with Scrum or Kanban
| ssully wrote:
| Before the pandemic, I worked in a building that had a wasp
| problem. It was not uncommon for a wasp to fly out of the heating
| vent and hang out in my office.
| controlledchaos wrote:
| That would be a good enough reason for me to work from home.
| stuff4ben wrote:
| They were trying to transition to becoming CloudBees... but that
| name is already taken.
| mistersquid wrote:
| Unbeelievable!
| joejerryronnie wrote:
| This happened to an empty conference room while I was working at
| Stanford. They noticed something was amiss when honey began
| dripping down the walls.
| michaelmior wrote:
| Unrelated to lockdown, but I recall once there was a raccoon who
| made it into a third floor research lab at my former institution.
| Apparently it managed to find its way into a ventilation duct
| somewhere on the ground floor and crawl its way up.
| war1025 wrote:
| In the early fall, I got a frantic message from my wife along
| with a video of something making a hell of a noise in the
| laundry room.
|
| Came home unsure what I'd find, but I figured it was a small
| mammal of some sort. At first we figured it was something that
| had nestled into the laundry and was very upset at being tumble
| dried. Opened the drier door just a crack figuring we'd hear
| the thing trying to escape or at least snarling at us.
|
| Nothing.
|
| Determined it was in the dryer vent.
|
| I had converted from the normal flexible dryer hose to a solid
| metal tube the year before because I heard it was more
| efficient and we were having some issues with our clothes
| drying.
|
| (Ended up being lint build-up. Clean your dryers out folks. I
| had cleaned all the obvious spots, but there was heat shield
| that was completely caked with lint and effectively acting as a
| hot pad keeping the warm air from getting to our clothes)
|
| Anyway, proceeded to take the dryer duct apart, figuring it was
| a mouse or something. Every so often we'd hear the thing start
| moving around, so I'd kick the dryer on for a second to keep it
| from going into the blower and trying to get out that way.
|
| We were trying to rig up something to catch the mouse in when
| we finally did get it to come out the open end of the dryer
| tube. It's a tight space so that was easier said than done.
|
| Ended up accidentally disconnecting the end of the tube that
| connects to the dryer while we were fiddling and figured the
| mouse had escaped into our house.
|
| Heard whatever it was moving around in there still, so I kicked
| the dryer on to dissuade it from leaving the tube from the
| wrong end.
|
| Heard a big noise, and all the sudden a bird comes shooting out
| the pipe. About shit my pants and took off running up the
| stairs. My little 3 year old son had been down there at the
| time and I didn't realize. He started screaming, which I felt
| real badly about.
|
| Was trying to figure out how we would get a bird to peacefully
| leave our house. I assumed it wouldn't leave willingly.
|
| Crept back down the stairs, and there was a little house finch,
| sitting on the inside ledge of the window in our entry way. It
| looked at me as if to say, "I want to be out there, please."
|
| So I opened the door and he flew right on out.
| wilsocr88 wrote:
| As always, there is a relevant xkcd.
|
| https://xkcd.com/1439/
| rightisleft wrote:
| Bees?
| vlunkr wrote:
| Gob's not on board.
| google234123 wrote:
| Unreadable site.
| lostlogin wrote:
| A few observations - I'm a beekeeper.
|
| The brood pattern on that comb is horrible - I suspect a lot of
| varroa, but there are other potential causes. Varroa can be
| tidied up if the colony isn't too far gone. Once it's removed it
| needs to be kept under observation for a bit, and kept away from
| clean hives.
|
| If it's carrying something like American Foul Brood, it shouldn't
| be spread. Here in NZ the 'treatment' for AFB is to burn the
| colony and the hive.
|
| A colony is unlikely to die if the queen is killed (assuming it
| isn't winter). They will make a new one from an existing egg.
|
| This is a neat write up - and good on the person who removed
| them. Cutting a colony out of a building is a horrible, messy
| chore. Catching a swarm is very wary in comparison.
|
| Edit: one more thought, comb is white, then it goes yellow, then
| brown and finally black. This is from use, bee feet and the
| cocoons that are inside each cell.
|
| That process takes time, usually a season of two at least. I
| retire my comb at about 3 years old.
|
| That comb looks quite black - I think it a been there for more
| than a season (dead bees noticed in April).
| ClumsyPilot wrote:
| You have to burn the colony and hive? Wow thats disturbing
| lostlogin wrote:
| Yeah, it's horrible. I haven't had to do it. NZ rules here.
| https://afb.org.nz/
|
| Edit: Some info. You are required to register any apiary
| (group of hives) and it's location after a short duration.
| You are required to inspect it at least once per year and
| report the results to the agency.
|
| If anyone gets AFB you are required to notify the agency and
| destroy the hive. A notification is the. sent to beekeepers
| in the area to warm them to be on alert.
|
| We aim to eradicate AFB, and given that it's mainly caused by
| beekeepers putting infected comb and equipment into hives and
| letting dead hives be robbed, this seems achievable.
|
| Unfortunately we are doing much worse with this plan than we
| have do to date with covid eradication. It's lucky all New
| Zealanders aren't beekeepers.
| zgin4679 wrote:
| Wait, let me guess... Was it the Bumble office?
| cimerrii wrote:
| Funny enough, this company's office is between two Honey
| offices.
| weird-eye-issue wrote:
| You really made an account just for that?
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| It seems like it got 15 upvotes, so it might have been worth
| it.
| tomcam wrote:
| Wait how do you tell if it got upvotes?
| [deleted]
| justjonathan wrote:
| Having removed ~10,000 bees from my attic, I was surprised to
| learn, that they fit in a 2 gallon container. 20,000 seems like
| "a lot" but mass and volume, it's really not much.
| ashtonkem wrote:
| Workers don't live that long, a few months at most. It's not
| that surprising that a colony makes a lot of them; they're
| literally expendable, at least individually.
| dn3500 wrote:
| How are all of you reading this article? I get a paywall.
| spamizbad wrote:
| Wow I would _not_ want to be in charge of that cap table.
| rossdavidh wrote:
| They were always busy workers, but used too many buzzwords. The
| boss was too gossipy, a real queen bee type. They were pretty
| good at crosspollinating ideas, but the cubicles felt like cells.
| They liked to keep the workers in the dark most of the time. They
| did all feel like members of one big family, though.
|
| I know, you're going to downvote me. I have no regrets.
| Wingman4l7 wrote:
| For reference, an average hive has 30k bees in it (20-50,000 if
| you want a range).
| roel_v wrote:
| 20000 bees = one small hive. Doesn't make as catchy a headline of
| course, but just for reference.
| kurthr wrote:
| Yeah, I read an article about an 18-wheeler that tipped over
| with with 1 Million bees, and I couldn't help thinking of
| Austin Powers! I'd be surprised if there weren't at least 5
| Million.
| joshxyz wrote:
| Modern-day honeypot?
|
| Aight imma head out.
| [deleted]
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