Home sweet home: ‘Bee Whisperer’ gives rescued hives a chance to thrive
David Glover, known as the Bartlett Bee Whisperer, uses his smoker on June 17 to pacify a hive of bees that had taken up residence in a North Memphis industrial complex. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
More than 80,000 bees crawl on the outside of a seven-foot hive they'd built in an exterior wall of an old industrial complex in North Memphis. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
Ever the marketer, David Glover takes a picture for social media of a seven-foot hive he's about to remove from an industrial complex in North Memphis on June 17. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
David Glover uses a specially modified vacuum to remove the layers and layers of bees from each section of hive on June 17. While this may sound painful, the bees aren't actually harmed during the vacuuming process, as they are filtered into a refashioned five-gallon bucket that gives the bees more places to hang on to during transport. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
David Glover cuts away a section of a hive he removed on June 17. "That's the joy of doing removals: you don't know what you're getting into until you actually open it up," Glover said. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
David Glover hands his assistant, Cassie Krebs, a section of brood comb to be packed up and transported to their new home at Jones Orchard. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
Cassie Krebs carefully packs a section of brood comb into a portable bee box to be transported to their new home on June 17. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
Cassie Krebs loads up one of three 5-gallon buckets of bees that was removed from an industrial facility in North Memphis on June 17, while David Glover cleans up in the background. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
David Glover releases a re-homed hive of bees from a modified five-gallon bucket designed to give the bees more places to hang on to during transport. "It's my own design," Glover said. "It's more me-friendly and more bee-friendly." (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
David Glover slides a section of artificial hive into a bee box that the rescued bees will use to build their new hive in Jones Orchard. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
David Glover uses a bit of smoke to encourage the last stragglers to return to their new hive in Jones Orchard on June 17. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
A colony of rescued bees gets acclimated to their new home in Jones Orchard after being removed from an old industrial facility in North Memphis on June 17. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
David Glover isn’t just rescuing as many bees as he can, he’s also training the next generation of pollinator protectors.
Topics
beekeeping Bartlett David Glover Bartlett Bee Whisperer Jones Orchard Bee recovery ARK Farms Gail Karr Cassie Krebs pollinatorsPatrick Lantrip
Patrick Lantrip is an award-winning writer, photographer and videographer based in Memphis, Tennessee. When not exploring the outdoors, Patrick enjoys spending time with his daughter, Anna.
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