Sandy Springs’ mayor moonlights as a beekeeper and he got a chance to show off his skills recently.
A swarm of honeybees took up residence in a construction zone near the Mount Vernon Highway and Sandy Springs Circle intersection, according to a Facebook post.
“It’s bee swarming season,” Mayor Rusty Paul posted Thursday morning.
He said he was headed to check out a colony in his rector’s home when the city called about a swarm on the City Springs construction site early Thursday morning.
“So, I stopped in and retrieved this group of wayfaring insects,” Paul said. “I used my arm to sweep them off the rock into a five gallon bucket I use for storing my bee supplies and placed a towel over the bucket.”
Paul said he moved the honeybees to a hive, but wouldn’t say where.
Last year, he installed about 25,000 bees in the Lost Corner Preserve as part of what he called an “urban beekeeping initiative.”
When he was a boy, his grandfather followed feral bees to their hives in hollowed-out trees to get honey, Paul said. By the time he was 12, his father tasked him with maintaining five beehives and now the mayor gets away to his inherited cabin in Alabama where he cares for bees.
Last weekend, Paul posted on Facebook that his colonies in Alabama have been busy produing almost four gallons of honey.
The pollinators need protecting, Paul said, because without honeybees, we wouldn't have certain kinds of fruits and vegetables. Colony Collapse Disorder and other diseases threaten the natural populations.
He said he plans next week to try to rescue another colony of misplaced bees, “which will be more challenging since they are in a structure.”
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