HOW SAVING BEES PAID FOR MY 2 WEEK DECEMBER HOLIDAYS FOR MY FAMILY – OH, AND MY CAR…

The average BEE REMOVAL makes me about R1000 however there are low level easy jobs like water meters, sysal bird nests and pool pumps. I don’t have to climb trees, use a ladder and I don’t climb on any roof tiles.

I did 2-3 bee removals a week after work in my first year. It was tough going learning the ropes on the job. I got stung. I ended up in Carstenhof clinic one time from a chimney removal. People didn’t want to always pay. And it was late work with 2-5 hours per commercial bee removal… I was always learning from self awareness and wished I had someone to show me a better way…

I figured over time that a bee vacuum system was the only way to make this work faster and simpler for me. I designed a few different ones and spent at least a few weeks testing it – losing some colonies in the process with mistakes having the wrong setting on air flow or the bees got too hot and how I figured out how to tackle this.

Ladders and owl boxes and roof tops were another issue. Using the correct working-at-height equipment makes a massive difference. Also, knowing what tools you need to get into tight spots inside the corner of a tiled roof and how to be safe while safely removing the bees…

Months and years later, I was able to get a bee removal down by at least half the time. And much higher rate of success and I was getting a great reputation from a variety of different referrals, both private, personal and commercial.

On top of that, I was keeping some of the bees and getting honey from them now. I was also able to make candles and creams from it. Sell the beeswax as pure too to people who wanted to make their natural skin products too… When I had too many colonies to keep I would sell the spare bee colonies – that I saved and got paid for to safely take away – to another beekeeper which would make me about R500 extra!

All of this led to me paying for my car in two years and taking my family of four down to Cape Town, as a Vaalie, for two weeks in December nogal!

Another year, I took my family to Mozambique for 3 weeks in Tofo, Inhambane which was amazing off of the bee removals and products from them after I safely removed them.