Bee wrangler removes hive from Combes farm

COMBES — In case you were wondering, bees can make a home out of anything.

Here on Kilbourn Road late Wednesday afternoon, bee wrangler Walter Schumacher was called in for his expertise to remove honeybees which had set up shop in a battered, worse-for-wear irrigation culvert.

“He’s from Brownsville, and just bought a place just north of 107 here in Combes so he’s going to be our new neighbor,” said Mayor Marco Sanchez. “We had this issue with bees, so who better to help us? A new neighbor with some skills.”

Schumacher’s company, which he operates with son, William, is called the American Honey Bee Protection Agency and is already set up for bee removal anywhere in the Rio Grande Valley.

This gusty afternoon, Schumacher was set to begin ousting the bees from the steel culvert by using a grinder to slice the bee-filled tube open, but only after he had gently wafted some smoke into the hive to calm the bees.

The big question, especially so for those standing nearby, was are these European honeybees, or the much more aggressive Africanized honeybees?

“It depends more on the size of the beehive than it does the species of bees,” Schumacher said. “So if it’s a little bitty African beehive, it’s not going to kill you, but if it’s a really big European beehive, it’s gonna kill you.”

“That’s how they send out their attackers, which they think are their defenders, because they don’t think they’re attacking,” he added. “We’re the bears.”

So Schumacher set to work with the grinder to separate the upper portion of the culvert with the beehive and what he said was “a ton of honey” from the lower portion, which was filled with mud.

“The little grinder tool with the diamond bit that will last for 100 years won’t scratch it,” Schumacher said.

Fortunately there was a mayor nearby, and Sanchez called in the big guns and the bees were removed culvert-and-all by a city front-end loader and taken to the Schumachers’ shop.

The bees will be given a new, more traditional beehive home by the Schumachers, although the honeybees will be expected to work for their keep.

The company plans to jar and sell honey at farmers markets in the Valley, as well as ship to customers.

“We’re setting up the building to bottle honey and ship out of it,” Walter Schumacher said. “I’m building a place in Austin to do the same thing.”

And as the bee operation expands, Walter says he’s looking for a couple of people willing to learn the beekeeping trade.

“We need to hire some people,” he said.

But why Combes?

“Where do bees store their honey?” he said. “Combes!”