Professional beekeeper Mike Knuckey extracts a hive of honeybees from Cullen College of Engineering Building 1 as Plant Operations employee Jose Perez watches.

It was a sticky situation for University of Houston administrators when they learned about a hive of more than 100,000 honeybees tucked in the Cullen College of Engineering Building 1. Administrators aware of the declining bee population took every effort to spare the hive.

	Knuckey and Perez lower the bee hive.

“Several months ago, we sprayed a big swarm of bees with water. We would never use pesticides for a situation like this, particularly with bees,” said Alex Alexander, custodial services and grounds director in Plant Operations.

“We thought we had driven them away from the building, but we were mistaken. We later noticed honey was dripping out of the lower bricks onto the edge of the building's base. We knew, then, something was up.”

What was up, literally, was a hive in the 40-foot section of the southeast corner of the building’s exterior wall near the roof line.

UH immediately contacted a professional beekeeper, Mike Knuckey, who is based in Pearland. Following Knuckey’s recommendations, administrators removed and relocated the hive off campus, temporarily. UH plans to build a new nest for the bees in a wooden, isolated area of campus. The bees should be in their new home on Friday, Nov. 16.

Francine Parker
fparker@central.uh.edu