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Large bee removal project begins at Austin Airport
The goal is to try to save as many bees as possible during the move.
AUSTIN, Texas - As thousands of people were flying out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Thursday morning, part of the airport was also swarming with thousands of bees.
Removal specialist Walter Schumacher, who owns the American Honeybee Protection Agency, and is also known as the Bee Czar, was brought in by the city to help relocate the hives.
"It's going to be difficult, is what it’s going to be, because the bees, depending on if they filled the blocks up, we might have a beehive that goes 15 feet in little six-inch cubicles, so it’s going to be a lot of work," said Schumacher.
It’s possible the bees have been living in this building on the south side of the airport for five, maybe even 10 years.
"We don’t want the bees buzzing the tower, we don’t want the bees buzzing the employees, staff and passengers," said airport spokesperson Sam Haynes.
The goal is to save as many bees as possible during this moving day.
"Bees are important they’re critical to the local food chain, here locally, and we know nationwide there is a decline in honeybees, so we are doing everything we can to protect them as a species, and to be good stewards of the land here that we have," said Haynes.
The building, which dates back to when the airport was an Air Force base, is being demolished along with several other buildings as part of an expansion project.
As the bees were being chiseled out of the wall and the combs removed, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg was tweeting on social media, announcing that Austin-Bergstrom is getting an additional $15 million as part of a multi-billion-dollar transportation infrastructure funding bill.
"What it does is that it helps us put that money toward projects like the new baggage handling system a new checkpoint three expansion and improvement but really what it does, it symbolizes that we are growing," said Haynes.
The demo work Thursday revealed multiple hives stretching high into the building. Some comb was old and withered but others parts dripped with honey and angry bees, a reflection of how summer is peak activity time for bees.
"The bees now have built, there’s plenty of water, there are lots of flowers, lots of nectar, and they built to a point where they can produce a secondary swarm the season if we get rain again, so there are a lot of bees, and they’re doing their thing," said Schumacher.
So will Schumacher’s relocation team because when this job is over, another hive at Austin-Bergstrom is waiting nearby. Schumacher also would like to get permission from Austin-Bergstrom to build a bee colony somewhere on the property. His plan is to have the site worked by military veterans as part of a program to help those with PTSD.