-
Sep 1, 2006 10:30 pm US/Central
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Swarm of Bees Find New Home With Beekeeper
3,500 Bees Now Call 12-Year-Old Girl's Home Home
by Dana Kozlov
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
It's bye bye bees for thousands of buzzing insects who took up residence on a quiet Chicago curb. CBS 2's Dana Kozlov meets the mystery man who took away thousands of bees.
This pile of bees, huddled on a Chicago curb, had North Center residents abuzz – that is until beekeeper
George Manning stepped in and saved them.
"I was afraid for them and I didn't want them to get destroyed," said Manning. "This is really an orientation flight going on. They are trying to find their way to home base, which is here."
Manning's wife heard our story about the bee pile and the concerns surrounding it and immediately called him. In the dark of the night, Manning says he drove to the corner of Leavitt and Grace and took the queen and her servants away.
"I scooped them up," Manning said. "I had a couple of pieces of cardboard and put them in and then, just a little drama, I scooped some up with my hands and put them in."
The roughly 3,500 bees are now busy making honey in his 12-year-old granddaughter's gangway, who has picked up her grandpa's passion.
"He's showing me how to make the honey and how to treat the bee's," Andrea Manning said.
And one thing both Mannings stress is if you respect the bees, they won't really hurt you. That's good news for those living in that
North Centerneighborhood, considering thousands of bees still reside in an area tree.
Families on the block, including Kim Lutz, said, "We didn't want anything bad to happen to them," she said. "We just wanted nothing bad to happen to anybody else."
George Manning has ensured the street level bee threat is gone.
Manning believes it was a swarm of bees that left the hive and relocated to the street. And he says it's still wise to use caution around large groups of bees.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)