An estimated 100,000 American honey bees are being safely moved from their hive in Southlake, where they were recently discovered hidden inside a hollow brick wall bordering the Monticello neighborhood.
"I have no problem with them," said neighbor Mike Moran. "Having 100,000 of them right down where they're at is maybe a little bit intimidating."
Workers repairing the wall discovered the hive about four months ago, but the bees have likely been there for two years or more.
"We ride bikes or walk or run all the time and never noticed them once," said neighbor Dee Bailey. "I don't think they ever hurt anybody, yet."
The Monticello Homeowners Association considered exterminating the bees, but then quickly decided against it, contacting the American Honey Bee Protection Agency to safely relocate them.
"What they did was they sealed up all the entrances except for the portal that was put in that the bees can fly out of but not back in," said Monticello HOA Treasurer David Foster.
Beekeepers placed a box nearby to attract the bees, which were unable to return to their hidden hive.
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"The bee charmer is trying to encourage them to go into the brood box by putting pheromones in there to make it seem like there's a queen," Foster said.
"If he can get the queen to come out, then the rest of the brood will follow. They'll go into the box, he'll close that little door, pick that up and take it back to his farm," Foster added.
This week, the city of Southlake blocked off the busy sidewalk along Continental Boulevard to safely allow the removal.
"If they were to swarm onto a biker, and the biker tried to get away into the traffic, we really needed some way to barrier it off," Foster said.
The beekeeper plans to relocate the bees Thursday morning and will use smoke if necessary to coax the queen out of the hive and into the portable box.
"We can get our wall fixed, and hopefully these bees will be out generating, doing what they're doing for nature, and for us," Foster said.
