Why do people want free bee removal?

[orvette1]

The other day I got a call from a woman. She wanted me to look at removing some bees at her house. I went, it was a well established hive. The bees were in a old phone pole they used for a post. She has a big piece of land. I told her I would remove the bees for $50 if I could place a managed hive on the corner or her place. She said I should remove the bees, take down the pole and haul it all away for the honey in the hive! I gave her my offer again and told her to call me. She hasn't. What's up with people?

[gwalker314]

I saw an ad in our local paper that said "Wild Honeybees For Sale" I emailed the lady and she said she was taking the highest offer from anyone who would buy the bees that were in her wall and to completely repair and cleanup after the removal. :shock: I wonder how many offers she got? :?

[JP]

 Why do people want free bee removal?

Because there are a few souls out there willing to remove them for free, to get the bees.

When people ask me about removing them for free, I explain to them what I have to go through to remove them.

I tell them I would gladly recommend someone who would do it for free if I knew someone willing to do so.

There are times where I do remove them for free but this is not the norm for me.

Pay someone to remove their bees?  :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau: :lau:


...JP

[bigbearomaha]

I've done free bee removals before, for some senior citizens and in a couple situations so  I could get them quickly before they were un-necessarily killed. 

like, JP, I tell people what is involved in the process of removing bees from a wall or the like to help them "appreciate" the charge for removing them.

me pay them to remove the bees?  No, I don't think so.

There is a difference between being a nice person and being a 'sucker'.

Big Bear

[lakeman]

Why do people want free bee removal? Because as we slowly move towards a socialist society (highly promoted by the present administration, and the democratic party), people are expecting everything to be done for them, they expect to be taken are of. As Kruscheff (sp) said years ago slowly we will bury you.

[slacker361]

wow give it a reset lakeman   :-D :-D :-D

[Kathyp]

Because there are a few souls out there willing to remove them for free, to get the bees.

like me.  :-D  and lakeman is not wrong.  i got a call the other day from a lady who wanted me to do a free removal from her home.   she started out with a sob story and ended up wailing "what am i going to do?"  i had a few suggestions, but have learned to hold my tongue (sometimes) as i have gotten older.  not only did she want the bees removed for free, but she wanted the repair work done for free also......good luck with that, lady....

i have had people call and want to know how much i'd pay them for the swarm hanging in their tree.  after all, the bees are all dying and......

[lisascenic]

I think there's some confusion about what socialism is and isn't.

Anyway, any self-respecting capitalist will "buy low, and sell high."

It's -- sadly -- human nature to be greedy and selfish. 

[Grandma_DOG]

I think there's some confusion about what socialism is and isn't.

Anyway, any self-respecting capitalist will "buy low, and sell high."

It's -- sadly -- human nature to be greedy and selfish. 

But as any good capitalist should point out Greed is good. It creates efficiency in the market, it spawns ideas to lower cost in both positive and negative ways, and it is the mother of our inventive processes.

The Langstroth hive is a product of greed.  So don't knock greed to harshly, it does have upsides.

[Kathyp]

i don't generally = greed with profit.  greed will make people do things that are nasty.  profit makes for efficiency and economy.  no profit = no production.   :evil:

[hardwood]

Don't even get me started on this free removal crap, I've had too many of those type calls this year!

Scott

[lenape13]

I used to do free cutouts, just to get the bees.  Then people wanted me to do the repairs for free, as well.  After my last job, I won't even do cut-outs, period.  If I remove bees, it will be via trap-outs, and you'll pay me.  I figure they can pay me, or they can pay for an exterminator, and I'll still be cheaper.

[oldenglish]

Swarms for free but cutouts will have a fee.
I have actually not had a single swarm call this year, I did get some swarms through other contacts, does not help when people post on craigslist that they will pay $20 for all swarms or the folks that say they will collect swarms statewide.

[Hethen57]

Sorry, I'm a sucker for getting baited into this discussion which mixes bees and politics, but I agree that "greed' in the traditional sense is a bad character trait, but I think that recent political dialog this word is attempting to re-define the word to be synonymous with someone trying to be an operate a business with a profit motive (as opposed to government which just takes money from others and wastes it for generally political gain, in the name of an illusory noble cause).  That being said, people want free stuff because they are used to getting it and they are under the false impression that the bees in their wall have some special value.  By my calculation, the value = about $85 for a package of bees, less your time and materials, which equals...you pay me  :-D

[Paynesgrey]

I can see where people would get the idea it should be for free. When we had bees in a wall many years ago, we really had an inflated idea of how much honey must be in there for "all those bees" :) and what it must be worth :) Looking back, it was a small colony.

And the beekeepers did not want the "valuable" honey anyway, because even though we had not sprayed, we could not guarantee that a prior owner had sprayed that spot before this hive moved in. Which makes sense - now. I would have thought it was an excuse, except that they were firm any honey HAD to be trashed. Maybe they were recognizing old combs etc that told them that spot had previous colonies.  

When we started beekeeping, I was told that some places animal control will remove swarms for free. That made a lot more sense to me after I talked with several animal control officers. I found out that most won't, because they are not beekeepers or their city says no (liability) The ones that will do it for free are beekeepers in addition to their day jobs. They do not charge, because they are already on the clock to the city. Their cities are willing to let them, as a public relations thing - Dear voters - see, we protect you from wild hogs, wild bees, and wild dogs - re-elect us :)

The beekeeper/control officers I talked to wouldn't do cutouts though. They said it would be a conflict of interest, and that it does not pay/costs more than it is worth. No one wants to pay.

[Paynesgrey]

Nonbeekeepers have no clue what it costs for woodware alone alone to hive a swarm or a cutout. At least I didn't. Nevermind time, gas and labor. Or that a swarm may well leave the beekeeper, or not work up into anything/dieout during winter, when the beekeeper has more time and investment in them. NOW, I can see how one could/WOULD have to charge. But before we were beekeepers, it looked like free bees - why shouldn't the beekeepers pay us?

[MustbeeNuts]

Seems straight forward to me, said homeowner doesn't want the bees, does want them removed. You as beekeeper are willing to remove them as a service, service implies a cost. If you perform a service you should be paid for it. People are just greedy and think that a swarm or hive is worth something to someone. I have never had the luxury of removing a hive or a swarm, but if I was asked to remove one with a cutout , cash money up front. Becaue I am providing a service!.

[MagicValley]

Change. Its all around. Change is happening in our workplaces, our schools, our churches, in politics, government, the military, our communities and even in our homes.

Change is good according to popular opinion, but whats involved in the process of change? Does it just happen? Is there a pattern to it? Is some change controlled? By whom? Why? And just what do social change, post-modernism, and that deal the serpent offered Eve in the Garden of Eden have in common?

This is the kind of stuff the Progressives would really rather you never read.

Post-modernism has been inflicted on the West.  They have an extraordinarily effective set of weapons at their disposal. The armory from which these weapons are drawn is "social psychology". This is an artificial discipline created expressly as a tool box to further the work of transforming traditional western cultures into Marxist-socialist cultures and to do so in a more subtle, from the bottom up manner than the brute force, top down Leninist-Stalinist approach. Marx modeled man in economic terms. If, while keeping the basic structure of Marxism intact, you prune out the economic perspective and graft in the humanistic, human-relations model of man put forth by Sigmund Freud, then you have created social psychology. This is precisely and intentionally what was done by that body of thinkers that includes the "Frankfurt School" and Antonio Gramsci.

There is a distinction between what can be called traditional Marxism and transformational Marxism. The first is represented by the Leninist/Stalinist approach and the second by what I refer to as the Frankfurt School/Gramscian approach. The goal of both groups is a Marxist society

The traditional approach, stated crudely: Stalin says to you, "This is the description of the New Soviet Man. Conform." If you fail to do so, Stalin puts a bullet in your head. This simply does not work here in the West.

The transformational approach, stated very simplistically: They get you in an environment (say, an institute of higher learning or a Total Quality Management work setting) that supports their paradigm and then help you and guide you into conforming to the model of the New Soviet Man. If you fail to do so, then you get therapy and re-mediation through the process until it takes. You become the New Man from the inside out. And, for the most part, you dont even know its happening.

One way to describe that environment is as follows: A diverse group dialoging to a (pre-determined) consensus on a social issue in a facilitated environment. A word for this structure in the Russian language is "Soviet". Some terms for it in the English language are "public-private partnership" and "stakeholders council" and "group therapy" and on and on.

Antonio Gramsci laid out a strategic framework for this approach and, upon coming to America, the Frankfurt School alumni and their ideological progeny began building the nuts-and-bolts tactical tools for applying the approach. They've been working these processes for a long time now and they've been fantastically and fatally successful here in the West, particularly in America.

Knowledge is power, ignorance is not bliss and what you dont know can hurt you.

[luvin honey]

Give me a break on the democratic/socialist stuff. Maybe people are having hard times right now and looking for any way to make a few dollars. They maybe figure you are getting to keep the bees so you should pay them. Wrong-headed thinking, but they probably have no idea the labor and risk involved.

[Kathyp]

nope.  they did it when times were good too.  you know who always offers to pay, even for my time collecting swarms?  it's the hard working folks that are barely making it, but making it on their own.  i don't ever take even gas money from them.  the upscale neighborhoods are usually good for an offer of some gas money and i'll take that. I don't even mess with the folks that call and whine.  i have a no whining policy in all things.