Bees Swarm Weston Eye Clinic, Beekeeper Comes to the Rescue

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Posted: 5:30 PM Jun 20, 2008 Bees Swarm Weston Eye Clinic, Beekeeper Comes to the Rescue An area business owner and local beekeeper are buzzing with happiness tonight after dealing with a bit of chaos this afternoon when more than 10,000 bees caused an uproar in Weston. Reporter: Jonalee Merkel Email Address: jmerkel@wsaw.com Bees Swarm Weston Eye Clinic, Beekeeper Comes to the Rescue

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An area business owner and local beekeeper are buzzing with happiness tonight after dealing with a bit of chaos this afternoon when more than 10,000 bees caused an uproar in Weston.

“I love bees,” said Doug Stein, O.D. “I was thinking I just can’t imagine they’re good for business.”

He was right. Early Friday afternoon about 15,000 bees drove Stein Eye Center customers straight away from the front door.

“We had this giant cloud of bees and they were so huge that people would park and they’d go right back into their car.”

So Dr. Stein called an exterminator, who then called in a beekeeper.

“He doesn’t kill off the honeybees,” Robert Benes, president of the Marathon County Beekeepers Association, said of the exterminator. “He always calls up a beekeeper because they’re so beneficial to our economy.

In fact Benes says bees make up nearly $15 billion in our nation’s agriculture industry and that’s why he was more than willing to come save the little buzzers. He then took them home to start their own little hive.

“The queen should be in the box,” Benes said. “That’s basically their new home then.”

If you have a swarm or hive of honeybees at your business you’d rather not have there, Benes says you should not call an exterminator but instead call the Marathon County Beekeepers Association who will send a beekeeper out to remove the swarm. The association’s number is (715) 261-1231.