Relocating 6 Million Singapore Bees and counting, One Nest at a Time

Armed with nothing but a ​bandana and his bare hands, 42-year-old Clarence Chua rescues bees, scooping them from nests ‌into wooden boxes to relocate them, sometimes to his own backyard.

SINGAPORE, July 2 (Reuters) - Armed with nothing but a bandana and his bare hands, 42-year-old Clarence Chua ‌rescues bees, scooping them from nests into wooden boxes to relocate them, sometimes to his own backyard.“What I like about them is if you respect them and you don't threaten their safety, they are totally OK with you being at ​close quarters with them,” Chua said.When residents of tropical Singapore find bees nesting in their ​houses, they typically call pest control, which can exterminate nests in minutes for ⁠about S$80 to S$150 ($62 to $116). But Chua has convinced a growing number to allow him to rescue ​the bees for between S$100 and S$500.

In the last six years, he has safely relocated an average ​of 100 nests each year, which comes up to about 6 million bees saved. Humane relocations entail moving the whole nest, keeping the queen bee, babies and worker bees intact in their colony. They are then moved to three apiaries ​that he manages, one of which sits in his own backyard.

Chua has rescued bees from all sorts ​of exotic places, from a “spirit house” in a condominium to a plane’s engine, which could not take off until ‌the swarm ⁠was relocated.

As awareness of bee rescuing improves, he noted that local town councils, which manage the public housing estates where almost 80% of the population live, have also begun engaging his services.Still, the job is not without its dangers.Once, he tried to rescue a swarm of what he assumed were docile bees ​on the ledge of ​a condominium, which attacked ⁠him instead. In the 30 seconds it took to undo his harness and escape, he was stung about 100 times.“It really taught me to not underestimate ​nature,” he said, adding that he still approaches nests without a bee ​suit initially to ⁠better gauge their mood before donning one if the swarm seems agitated.

Chua advocates for bee rescues on social media. Videos of his exploits, some of which are taken from a first-person view with Meta glasses, have ⁠drawn some ​20,000 followers.“Without bees, there will be much less fruit or ​much more expensive fruit, because there's a lack of fruit in the world ... This is a mind-blowing amount of crop we ​depend on for our own survival,” he said.