(lively music) - This is why we can't have nice things.

Everything gets honey up.

Chasing bees is hot, dirty work.

(drill whirring) (saw whirring) Nothing's gone as plan.

But that's nothing compared to the Texas weather.

- [Dan] It's 107 degrees.

- Yeah, we're not gonna suit up.

Epic removals from a bamboo forest (saw whirring) to a concrete jungle.

Ooh a breeze.

I'm burning up.

We're getting stung.

- Stinging my forearms.

- And I'm hanging on for dear life.

And somebody get this guy some AC.

- Burning rubber baby.

- My name is Charlie Agar and I'm a beekeeper in the Texas Hill country.

They got me.

I help people with nuisance bee problems and rescue bees from sticky situations.

I think I got some bees on me.

With bee populations in decline, it's more important now than ever to save these bees.

Whoa.

Beekeeping has taken me all over the state of Texas and working with bees has given me the opportunity to meet some incredible people along the way.

I'm always learning, experiencing new things, and working hard.

Things can get a little crazy.

Ow.

- Ow.

- But I love it.

(saw whirring) (engine revving) Yeah (lively music) (saw whirring) This is just wild, I love it.

I love it.

We're solving somebody's problem We're putting these bees t work where they're meant to work somewhere safe and away from people.

This is what it's all about.

Retreat, whoo.

(lively music) (gentle music) (bees buzzing) Ooh, look at these girls, beautiful.

So it's a hundred degrees today.

I'm not putting the suit on.

These bees are not aggressive.

They're busy, but I'm wearing a veil so I stay pretty, don't get stung.

But swarms are not aggressive.

So, and I'm gonna move quickly and vacuum them up.

(vacuum whirring) (gentle music) You know, the bees seem to like this area.

You gotta wonder too, all these houses are relatively new.

So we're in bee habitat, the bees are not in our habitat.

(vacuum whirring) Vacuuming these up on a low setting.

But I'm gonna get as many bees as I can.

I won't get them all 'caus we're in the middle of the day.

All the, a lot of the foragers are out scouting new locations.

They've already started form a little comb on this wire.

They can't help but produce that comb.

I might go inside here.

(vacuum whirring) Woo, woo, woo, woo.

(Charlie panting) I feel like the family dog.

At least it's shady in here.

Look at them, this is called festooning right here where they're making a chain.

This vacs filling up, it's getting heavy.

It's a good thing it's not hot.

Oh, it is hot.

Ooh.

Can't catch them all out of the air, although I'll try.

(vacuum whirring) This is like Mr. Miyagi in "Karate Kid".

Catch the bees out of the air with the vac.

(vacuum whirring) (lively music) I'm 48 years old.

All right, let's go stand out in the sun somewhere else.

(vacuum whirring) (lively music) Boom.

Next.

Free bees for me.

(honey dripping) We have spicy bees in Texas, which means wearing a full bee suit even in a hundred degrees plus heat.

Welcome to the jungle baby.

(door slamming) What's up dog?

What have we got today?

- We have some beehives in a couple cars back here, about 20 yards.

- We're going in the jungle today, baby.

We got some bees and an old car, a beautiful old Jaguar.

And this has been parked back there for a while.

We kind of have full access, but we gotta get to the car.

Who parked their car in the bamboo grove?

- So the owner had a business where he fixed up Jaguars and soup them up and park some vehicles back here for a later time.

- All right, well the time is now.

- Yeah.

We're going in the jungle man, it's like Vietnam.

- Yeah.

- I'm ready.

Let's get in the jungle baby.

Let's get in the jungle.

- I'm just trying to be a TV guy I dunno what I'm supposed to do.

(laughs) Chainsawing bamboo in a hundred degree heat is nothing but fun.

Thankfully I have help.

(saw whirring) Kenny, we've been dating, how long have we been dating?

(laughs) No, Kenny reached out to me about bees.

I helped him learn a little bit about bees, but it wasn't long before he was teaching me.

He just took right to it and he's grown his apiary more than 30 hives in year one.

How about you go one side then the other and I'll just grab it after you - We're good.

(saw whirring) - It's always fun working with Kenny.

He's a dynamo guy.

He is, you ask him what he does for fun.

He says, "I like to work."

And I like people like that.

Doing a yeoman's job, Kenny.

(lively music) You know, I lived in Japan for a number of years.

I spent a lot of time around bamboo, I'm pretty comfortable with it.

It actually cuts real easy.

(saw whirring) You got bees yet?

- Not yet.

- Tell me when you're stung.

(bamboo rustling) - They're not afraid of me - Watch these little stumpers.

It's like pungy sticks.

We had some serious bush whacking to do to get to these bees.

We went out with chainsaws, we cut it first.

We left them kind of high and then we realized we were making pungy sticks that if we slipped and fell we were gonna, you know, pierce our our guts and die.

Somebody get Kenny a liability waiver.

So we figured that's not a fun way to go.

So we decided, "Hey let's cut them down short so we don't have a problem."

If somebody falls that's gonna be through a limb, that would hurt.

So make a little pathway.

(saw whirring) (lively music) How'd you die, Charlie?

Pungy stick to the foot, infection.

(lively music) It's hot.

The other challenges today are the fact that we're in a major drought and a heat wave in Texas and it's gonna be 105 degrees today.

So that's always fun.

We're gonna light a smoker.

We're going to get close to the bees here in a second.

I'm just trying to catch my breath.

- It's hot.

The good thing is it's not that hot in suits.

It's hot, it's just straight up hot.

And that's just, we're used to that to a degree, but it's not fit for man to bees right now.

I'm flaming.

(saw whirring) We're coming up on a strong feral hive with tens of thousands of bees.

If I had a guess, I'd say they'r not big fans of chainsaws.

Macho man, ready savage.

(saw whirring) This is not the safest of situations, so we need to be careful.

We are hacking our way through gut piercing bamboo shards in the stroke inducing Texas heat.

And we're about to surprise a feral colony of tens of thousands of bees.

What could go wrong?

(saw whirring) (saw whirring) (saw whirring) Ow.

(lively music) We are in bees.

- Are they nice bees?

- Is there any other kind?

Ah.

Those are pissed off bees.

These bees have been here for something like 20 years, so it's gonna be interesting.

I got stung right on top of the head.

So we're gonna need your chainsaw to kind of finish off the job.

The bees, you see them?

Bees are coming out right there.

I'll smoke them.

(saw whirring) Ow.

Bee sting, bee sting, bee sting.

(saw whirring) (smoker clanking) Right, you wanna open it?

- Yeah.

- Is that the wire?

- I hope so.

Are you ready?

- Yeah.

(trunk rustling) Oh, no bees.

So first we thought, all right, they're just in the trunk, right Isn't that great?

Open the trunk, popped it, nothing.

So there's nothing in there.

We got no bees.

- No, there's some bees right there, they're inside that quarter panel.

- They're just coming out of the side, a hole in the quarter panel.

What now?

(bees buzzing) This is where it's at.

(lively music) The property owner used to work on Jaguars for a living.

He's got a shed nearby with a high lift jack.

So we're gonna jack up this Jag and get a look at these bees.

Looks like, it's like M16 or feel like a machine gunner.

Thankfully the homeowner is not afraid of bees, so we're suiting him up and converting him from a Jaguar keeper to a beekeeper.

All right, we're in bambo forest with a what year Jaguar.

Mid seventies Jaguar sitting in the dirt.

We're gonna jack it up and get it out of the dirt.

And they are here in this quarter panel.

That's their main entrance it looks like.

And so we're gonna jack this up and rock on with our bad cells, get these bees out.

(lively music) - Yep, there they are.

- Smoke them, Johnny.

(smoker puffing) (lively music) - [Kenny] This is pretty decent size.

- Oh yeah, it's dark, it's old.

- So, we want to try to find the queen or we wanna just start vacuuming and throw them out.

- I would, does that piece pull out?

- [Kenny] Do you have a queen clip?

- I do, I don't.

- [Kenny] Well then we'll probably for sure find her.

- {Charlie] Yeah clearly, we'll just vacuum her up.

- Ow.

(lively music) - Burning rubber baby.

We're burning rubber.

I'm trying to think which arm I'd be willing to lose.

By sticking it up there and having jack fall.

Probably neither.

- Probably not your dominant arm.

- We're in the bottom of the hive, but the hive is all up in the quarter panel.

I mean, he's okay with us cutting it, I'd say we cut what we can.

How far up in that are they too?

- To the top.

- Oh really?

- [Kenny] And they're coming out over here.

- So then with the help of the homeowner got his okay.

You tell me where to cut and I'll get after it.

I'm gonna get my saws on and some blades.

Be able to get it, saws all with a metal blade.

All right, we're gonna cut some holes.

I can hear them buzzing like crazy in there.

(saw whirring) (lively music) Open it up, got in there.

There we go.

And we see the hive.

There we go.

Much better.

That's a lot of honey.

(lively music) That's a lot of years they had brewed.

Right in the middle, honey.

(lively music) These bees had their own little piece of heaven out here.

(lively music) Look at that.

(lively music) They have just enough space in between each comb.

It's actually called bee space.

Three eights of an inch, which is just enough for bees to stand back to back on either side of the comb.

Tons of honey, those bees have been there for a long time.

Dark, dark comb.

Not a huge hive, they didn't have far to go, so I think they probably recycled their material where sometimes if they have ability to move, they'll just fill the space and move.

These bees I think they just kind of turned over and over in the same spot.

Look at that beautiful honey.

(lively music) (vacuum whirring) - Tastes pretty good.

It's really sweet.

- Tastes like a Ford or a Chevy, oh no, it's a Jaguar - Yeah, Jaguar honey.

- This is a classic old, old hive.

They've been here for a long time.

This hive has been the source of bees in this area for a while.

It's not uncommon, you know, they're way back in here and this homeowner, this landowner, he loves his critters and can live with them and that's perfectly fine.

What they'll do is they'll build up huge, and then they'll also, they'll swarm like crazy.

So these are probably swarmed many times over the years.

Here's your queen Kenny, right here.

- You see her?

- No, I mean this is where she can be when they run like this.

If we're lucky we find the queen When they're in the dark like this, she tends to run to the dark.

(vacuum whirring) They're just moving to it.

All right.

I smell bananas, I smell my brain cooking.

We did not find the queen.

So when it's a case where we're ripping, and tearing, and digging into the dark and the queen may have just absconded and he vacuumed up a whole cluster of bees.

So good chance we got her.

We'll leave no man behind.

Except that one, law of diminishing returns.

I say we call it.

- All right.

- It's not often that we throw in the towel, we throw up the white flag, but it's one o'clock, it's above a hundred degrees.

We're whipped, and we're gonna go re-home these bees.

Pound it out young man.

Boom, boom, boom.

Thank you so much for tolerating us today.

(laughs) This is the time of year where early morning and late evening, that's the time to do your work with bees or anything really.

So there's a reason people take siestas in the middle of the day in this part of the world and I think I'm about ready for one.

Woo hoo.

(lively music) That was a lot of fun.

The little pandas coming out of the bamboo forest.

We cooked back there, but man, we got that quarter panel opened up.

Big old hive, lots of bees.

We, I think they're gonna hive up real nice.

(vacuum whirring) And we solved their problem.

These folks are gonna need to move that vehicle here soon.

So that worked awesome, we're done.

Sweet.

It's a lot of bees.

- Yeah.

We'll be able to hive these up and then if they're not queen right in a few days can then introduce a queen.

So I know a guy who sells queens, by the way.

- I think I saw his Facebook post.

- Yes, Facebook post, he's on TV too.

He's kind of a big deal.

- Yeah, yeah.

We have another removal to tackle on the property in an old RV, but suddenly we had to push hold.

Unfortunately behind the scenes our producer nearly wound up in an ambulance.

- Heat exhaustion is kind of a pain.

It's actually hard to breathe.

And it was insanely hot out shooting in that bamboo without any air.

And that bee suit, you just sweat crazy.

And so I just went and checked to see what the temperature is and it's, yeah, it's 107 degrees in the shade right now.

It's insanely hot.

So that's producing TV show on bees in central Texas in the summertime.

Yeehaw.

(hive popping) - How you doing man?

- Good.

- Did you get some rest?

- Yeah, A little hot, swapped out the suit.

- Nice, that heat killed me, I was dying.

Everybody got a little nap, got out of the heat.

It was 106 degrees Fahrenheit, that is too hot.

We're back, it's more like in the nineties now.

It's hot in there though.

All right, what do we got here man?

- Have a beehive in the floor of the RV.

- Oh man, it's a nice little RV.

A couple of removals in the past, right?

- Yep, I don't think they got all the comb and so they keep coming back.

- All right, so we're jus gonna cut a nice big square here so you can actually see the bees If you look up, there wer two removals done from up here and instead of doing it from underneath us old guys do it from up on top We're gonna cut and lift.

I got Kenny, hardworking young Kenny, he's eager to make the cuts.

I'm happy to hand off the saw.

I got young Becker, Mr.

Curiosity, you're strong.

So I'm gonna try to step back tonight and just be like the cigar smoking boss.

All right, go smoke those bees.

Go tell them we're coming.

Over there.

Can you see them, where they're coming out?

- How did I get stung?

- [Kenny] Hey Becker, what do you call a dead bee?

A zombee.

- I don't get it.

- You can go, wah-wah-wha-wha.

Let's peel this back, all this stand around talking.

Making a mess, that's what I do.

Hey, there's linoleum under here (lively music) - About right here.

(drill whirring) - All right, we got bees coming out of the hole, so that's a good indicator.

(saw whirring) A friend of mine, Brittany, she did a floor like this and she pried it up and she put her hand in, and it snapped down, and it just took the tip of her finger off.

I can't think of a worst way to lose a finger than with a rough piece of plywood.

(saw whirring) (lively music) - [Charlie] Look out they're coming at us.

Oh, there we go.

- [Becker] Oh, that'll make a good, that looks like a good piece for me.

Isn't actually pretty cool.

- [Kenny] Ow, ow, I gotta get it Yeah, I gotta go.

- [Charlie] Kenny started getting hammered.

- They're mad.

- And moving like this makes them do it even more so it's pretty awesome.

- 10, 12.

Ow, do that.

(bees buzzing) Ow.

(lively music) Ah, can't get me on my face though.

- Oh man, that is a big piece of honey.

- Becker's got like bees all over him, he's cool.

He's not worried.

This is the whole hive.

How about that for some honey?

Woo, this is like a salmon filet Whoa.

Ouch, getting stung in the butt.

You can get all this, all that honey in there.

Scrape it right down.

Zip, zip, cut, cut.

We got a lot of bees to get out.

- [Kenny] They're not happy bees either, I'm getting drilled.

I had to put some reinforcement gloves on.

- Okay, good.

- All right, I got stung more times than I've gotten stung on one hand before.

- Heat is one thing, but heat and dozens of stings is a whole different story, and they're stinging.

Ow, ow, that's a good one, right in the knee.

Ouch, they're stinging me good.

- Little shot of adrenaline.

- Linda.

- Then we hear what no one likes to hear.

- Did that sting hurt you?

- Yeah.

- There's just a lot of unhappy bees and they're running away from us.

Our yeoman laborer got nailed, which is a bummer.

- I'm okay.

- Thankfully Becker is a trooper but we're gonna blanket him with smoke to prevent any more stings.

You smell like smoke.

You smell like a beekeeper.

I'm tired, I'm done, I've had a long day.

So Kenny, your mission should you choose to accept it, is to - Crawl in.

- Crawl under, see if you can see bees.

- Okay.

- Way up under.

(bees buzzing) - [Kenny] We got pretty much all the comb.

- [Charlie] Are you seeing bees underneath?

- [Kenny] Yeah, they're on the the edges here.

- On the edges, okay.

These bees saw us coming and they ran way back.

- [Kenny] You wanna climb underneath there and just pull them all out, no?

- I mean this isn't heavy is it?

- [Kenny] I haven't even checked - I don't think there's a ton of bees in there.

Not the amount we'd like, no.

When I was dreaming about what my career might be someday, I was like, I hope it's Friday night and I'm crawling underneath the derelict trailer to vacuum up a bunch of bees.

(vacuum whirring) - This is a waste.

I think we should call it.

I mean, we got as much as we get, that's it.

These bees outsmarted us.

We came at them hard, ripped that open, they scurry.

I would give them some time.

They'll form a big old ball and then you just vacuum them up at dusk and then onward.

- All right.

Should I vacuum those up?

- No, they're fine, they're just go in here.

I love going through drive-throughs for food.

They freak out.

(Charlie screaming) - It's interesting though, like.

- You're just telling them, come and get it.

That's an interesting exercise.

Look how they go after you when you wave your arms.

(lively music) - When I grow up, I wanna be a beekeeper.

(lines rattling) (pen scribbling) - We're in San Antonio, Texas today.

We got a hotel that is literally infested with four beehives in the wall of this hotel.

It's all stucco.

It looks like it's pretty easy to bash open and we're gonna be making a lot of openings and making a real mess here.

Woo baby, that thing is awesome.

- Charles's going up on that lif He gets a kick out of that.

- I got great help today, it's George, Al, and myself.

This is the original team.

- We're not even sure where to start.

We got bees from this end of the building all the way down to this end.

- We have a long day ahead of us, a lot of bees.

It's a hundred plus every day right now in Texas, it's brutal, but we do what we do.

Ow, I just got stung in the head I'm like 30 yards away from the bees, geez.

- Stir them out.

- All right.

(lively music) (drill whirring) I don't know what that is though, it's not wood.

(drill whirring) Oh it's metal.

- Metal probably runs straight up, so.. - Probably pry that off.

- I think they're right in here.

(saw whirring) (hammer banging) What's behind it?

Oh, there's old stucco behind it - Oh dang, old stucco is brutal.

It's so hard to get through.

- Might have a hard tim getting a hole started in there.

I'm not even sure they're here though.

- Right?

- Maybe.

(drill whirring) Still nothing.

They're stinging my forearms really bad.

- [Charlie] Take a break, take a break.

- Come on down, get some smoke right here on my wrist if you would, there.

- Well, we're not in comb yet.

This is like worst case scenario So we're like in bees, we got covered in bees.

See nothing but bees, but no honeycomb, no colony.

- Maybe they're to the left because that's three inch concrete on the top.

So they may be hanging on the bottom of that.

- Yeah.

- Like right up there.

(drill whirring) - Perfectly clean.

Man, I don't know guys.

There's a ton of bees up here and they're really pissed off when I go up there.

Ah, it's grinder.

I can't get through that.

(grinder whirring) (drill whirring) Let's get that freaking lift.

I'm just roasting in the sun.

Our first hive and we've been here for too darn long.

I don't even know what time it is.

It's gonna be a long day.

(drill whirring) Yeah, I got a hole.

This is it, this is home.

We got bees.

- George, you want to jump in?

I'm gonna come down and get a drink.

I might get out the sun for a sec.

(eerie music) (lively music) (hammer banging) (grinder whirring) - Oh, they're not happy about that at all.

- All right, we're finally in comb.

We've been going at this for hours, so glad to have these guys here 'cause I am, I'm tired already.

It's three layers of material.

It's new stucco, which thought that's what all it was, and then it's old stucco with wire last, and then underneath it's plywood.

- Nice, fresh comb, nice fresh honey.

- Looks like bees, take breaks, drink water.

Dehydration is a serious issue with beekeepers.

Once you have your suit on, you invariably drink less because you don't wanna take off your veil and get stung.

(drill whirring) I'll tire you out.

Oh, tons of bees.

I can use a break, I'm getting old.

You got drinks?

- It's hot.

- We're standing out in full sun in a hundred degrees.

I don't know, maybe I'm getting old.

I can't handle it.

(lively music) It's nearly noon and we've been on one removal all morning.

All right, Charlie, one down, not many bees left.

- One down three to go.

(laughs) So hive number two, we at least know how to break this stuff up.

(drill whirring) There ain't no prison can hold me.

(drill whirring) (lively music) Okay who's next?

Old man tired.

George, you wanna jump in or Gabe?

This is my retirement plan handing off to these guys.

- [George] Do you wanna save me for the heat of the day?

- I need a drink, I can taste my skull.

(lively music) (saw whirring) (lively music) It's hard to prepare for this kind of stuff.

You don't know what you're facing, you know?

(lively music) You sure like this lift.

If I get him to take it to m house for rest of the weekend.

- Hive two looks done, I'll take George's word for it.

My concern is there's gonna be a lot of follow up here, I imagine.

I'm gonna be coming back here at night.

This is it baby, hive number three.

Man, this hasn't been easy.

Nothing's gone as planned 'cause it's hot, it's like roasting hot and so everybody's pretty burnt.

It's not a pretty sight, a bunch of sweaty dudes in the waiting room for doing bee removal.

But man, these guys are awesome showing up to help me out with this one.

I could not do this alone, so grateful for them.

(lively music) (saw whirring) How you doing?

- Ah, honeycomb.

(drill whirring) - Pulled it right out the wall.

Ooh.

- What's that?

- Take over, I'm starting to, a little too much overhead.

- Take a break, yeah.

(saw whirring) Look at all that honey.

- That's gorgeous.

- I'm gonna be seeing this stuff in my dreams tonight.

(saw whirring) - Where's all the bees?

- Right?

- They're probably chilling by the pool.

- Dark old honey.

- There we go.

This was a healthy hive.

- That's a lot of honey.

- Taste good, it is yeah.

- We got three hives done.

Everyone's beat, triple digits outside, we're just soaking wet and exhausted.

Feels like I just jumped in the swimming pool I'm like drenched.

Get up there, get the fourth hive, that one out.

(drill whirring) Hey there's bees up here.

(drill whirring) Ow, right in the butt.

(hammer banging) Oh, I'm tagging out to the young and the talented.

There's miserable hot, I'm like burning up inside this suit.

Hive's exposed, they're money.

Yeah, we're good.

- Ooh a breeze.

(lively music) Whoops.

(laughs) Getting a lot of bees.

Ah shoot.

- I sprung a pretty bad lake.

Got a lot of bees, most of the honey's on me though.

- Ooh, heavy.

A lot of honey.

This is why we can't have nice things, everything gets honey up.

We got it done baby.

Alright gentlemen, you rock, good day.

Take care guys.

Ah, sweet frigid AC, come to me.

Oh, I'm dying.

(laughs) I got nothing left.

I'm just, I'm like the wicked witch, I'm melting.

(Charlie meditating) Heat exhaustions a scary thing.

So it's time for me to connect with someone with more than a decade of experience dealing with scorching hot bee removals.

(lines rattling) (honey dripping) Oh boy, we are in for it today y'all.

We're in Houston, Texas.

It is hot, it's been weeks of a drought, 110 degrees.

I've been suffering.

I got a call from my friend Dan.

He said, "Come out and help us with this really high bee removal."

So it's an honor to be working with this guy, but this is a serious job.

Like we're going 60 to 80 feet up, six story building.

Pretty big hive, plus the heat.

We're gonna be standing in the baking sun.

But the good thing is I'm with a 10 year professional bee remover.

This guy knows this business.

I'm in his hands, but we're going into it.

We're going in the weeds on an unpredictable hive, way up high.

Bee Man Dan, there he is.

How's it going brother?

- Good man, how are you?

- What do we got?

- We have a bee hive up on the sixth floor, we'll be working with the boom lift that's gonna take us 60 to 80 feet in the air.

We've got safety harnesses and all the safety equipment that we're gonna need.

- Great.

I know you brought your bee suit, so that's good.

- Got the suit, I'm ready to roll, yeah.

- Yeah, why don't we start by going upstairs and I'll give you a walkthrough on what we're looking at.

- Let's check it out.

- It's gonna be straight up, up here, we'll start by getting on the rooftop.

- All right.

- We are starting with the sun on our back, so that's less than ideal.

- All right.

- After you.

- Thank you.

Woo, it's cool in here.

- Number one greatest threat in this industry is heat strokes - We don't need to do that, checking in.

This beat's climbing a ladder for sure.

I'd rather do this than climb a ladder.

- All right, right in here.

- Oh nice, it's like an assisted living, I love it.

- So here's where I had started removal.

- But it's above this floor?

- No, it's in the wall.

- It's in the wall out there.

- Yeah, so if you actually scooch back a bit, you could actually see where the sheet rock piece fell down in there.

- Okay.

- That little dark spot.

- Yep.

- So if I was to shine a light, you would actually be able to see the comb right there.

Yeah, it goes from there and up.

- What's up?

- Oh, I gotta take this.

Bee Man Dan, how can I help you?

What time?

No, wait a minute, w scheduled this weeks in advance and you guys were supposed to have the lift here this morning, we've been waiting.

Yes, we still need it today.

No, we don't wanna schedule tomorrow.

We got all of our tools an equipment out here, we're ready.

All right.

- What's up?

- So the boom lift's not gonna be here as soon as we would like.

- It's a good thing it's not hot and we won't be working in the middle of the day.

- Sounds like we will be.

- It sounds like we're stuck.

This is bad news.

The day is only getting hotter and starting this removal in scorching heat is about the worst thing we can do.

- The first year I got into this business, I had three heat strokes.

I have since developed a heat index and above a hundred and plus, we do not perform work.

If we do make the exception today, we're just gonna take lots of heat stress breaks.

Here they are.

- Oh boy, well that's an active hive man.

They are busy.

- Yep.

Yikes, hello ladies.

- They have a really good location.

- They sure do, they can go out, look at all that forest.

- And when they take off the flight, they're already 60 feet high.

- Right, right, right.

- It's been a long time since I've had a high removal that took all day long.

- Yeah.

- I'm gonna look at your heat index thing 'cause it's better to just have a plan versus, you know, don't get heat stroke.

That's my plan, don't get too hot, you know?

I don't even know how the camera guys are gonna cover this.

I think one guy's gonna get on the roof, one guy's gonna be down here, we got a drone.

- One, are we gonna be up there outside with them?

- I'm getting worried it's not getting any cooler.

And the one thing we need to start this job isn't even here yet.

We got here at 8:00 AM ready to rock and roll and we're still waiting for the lift.

It's noon, it's only getting hotter and there's no lift.

Zen of waiting.

(Charlie meditating) - Been doing that a long time.

- Yeah, two hours of that.

The scary thing is we're approaching temps that we should not be working in - Here's where it gets, this is the part that I was talking about that's really confusing.

Caution, extreme caution.

Danger, extreme danger.

- Today it's gonna be 102, humidity is at 57.

So we are actually almost in the extreme danger, but right now we are in the danger.

- But this should be exciting.

It will be hot.

- Keeping this truck right here.

It'll always be running with the AC and everything.

- Okay.

- So if any of your guys starts to get a little dizzy spell or feeling in that heat stress.

- Yep.

- Just hop in the day - Okay - if you need to.

That's why I got the truck parked in the shade.

- Hello Buzzbee, Hello Buzzbee.

Oh, look ma, a crane.

About five hours late.

It's hot, the sun is blazing right now.

It's a hundred degrees plus.

And that lift doesn't look like it can do the trick.

I don't know about you, but that crane does not look like 80 feet to me.

I don't know if it's gonna make it.

- This goes up to 80 feet, right Okay, just making sure.

1800, no sweat.

(lively music) - Roger, roger.

- Every machine is different so it always takes a minute to kind of figure it out.

But this will actually be the biggest boom lift I've operated.

(lively music) I love operating these machines.

- Aren't they great?

They're so much fun.

Are we gonna suit up to smoke them?

- No.

- Okay.

Yeah, we're not gonna suit up, we just smoke them.

- The reason why we're not gonna suit up to smoke them because again, heat is our number one threat.

- Okay.

- And put on that jacket at the wrong time too soon is just as deadly as leaving it off.

- Okay, We got them smoked up.

- Let's go ahead and take a break.

- Oh sorry.

- When we come back up, that's when we'll suit up.

- It's gonna be hot, it's gonna be real hot.

Ow, I left it on the hood of the car while it was running.

So the suit is preheated, that was smart.

I think this is a lie, it feels hotter than that.

- [Dan] Going all the way up this time.

- Hey there's people in the window.

- They looking at us.

- There's a little kid out there.

(laughs) - All right, I'm pretty sure that's high enough.

Oh God.

Whoa.

Six Flags.

- Dang man.

This is way different from a 60 foot.

- Wakes you right up.

- Oh, and actually we need to come all the way down to the window first.

- Oh we do, don't we?

- Yeah, so we can get the extension cord hooked up.

All right.

- We got our man right there ready for us.

- So pass that extension cord through.

Go ahead and get us plugged in.

All right, back up.

- There we go.

Nice and smooth.

Veils on or what?

- Yeah veils on.

- Oh that definitely makes it warmer doesn't it?

The veil.

- Yeah, that's the reason why I say I don't put this suit on until the absolute have to.

- Me smoke for you?

- Yeah.

- Using the saw, dog?

- Yeah, this is good.

(saw whirring) - Hello bees.

(saw whirring) (lively music) - Here comes the chisel.

- Okay.

- Lined up with the grout as much as we can.

(hammer banging) (lively music) Believe it or not, I'm already starting to get that heartbeat in my ears.

- Okay.

(heart beating) (lively music) - You doing okay?

- Yeah, I'm doing okay.

- You want me to jump in and?

- Ah, I just wanna do the first - Oh these aren't cold.

- It's okay.

- It's like chopstick.

- Hey.

- That looks like the top.

- Yeah.

- You wanna go ahead and do the next one?

- Sure.

(lively music) - [Dan] We'll go away from the bees first.

(saw whirring) (lively music) There you go.

- A bee came and met me.

(hammer banging) - Oh.

- That's all right.

You wanna do the next one or do you want me to do it?

- We'll take turns, yep.

We found the top of the hive.

So we're working from this sill down.

We got one and a half bricks out I broke the second brick but that happens.

(saw whirring) (lively music) (hammer banging) just about stopping time now we got three bricks out.

We got a lot of confused bees and we're gonna go down.

- We're taking our heat stress break.

I'm sure you got a prett quick idea what now was about.

We're going to minimize the greatest threat of heat by taking our suits off.

- Yeah, no I'm fine.

- But while I'm on it.

- Unless you get stung baby.

Woo.

- So we'll start that timer so that way we can be safe.

- Up, up, up, up, up, up.

- Good progress.

- I'm gonna stop here for a little bit, so if you notice the bees are a bit more active.

- They're a little more active.

Get them a little smoke on them maybe.

- Y'all need to chill out.

- You see how the smoke comes out like that?

- Yes.

- That's the bees ventilating the smoke back out 'cause otherwise the smoke would naturally rise.

- Right.

Dan is really meticulous about what he does.

He's letting the bees feel the effect of the smoke.

Go in, get some food, right?

Fill their bellies, and that calms them down.

So I'm learning, I'm always learning.

I'm picking up new things 'cause I typically just rush right in and rock and roll.

Three bricks in.

We're gonna have to take a lot more bricks out.

Go right at the top of the hive.

It's all dark older comb.

They've been here a while.

- Yeah, that's also how you tell how long you've been here is how dark the comb is.

(grinder whirring) - I've got like three jokes.

Work fascinates me, I can watch people do it all day.

(saw whirring) (lively music) Did it get you?

Dan got his first sting an we're naked without our suits.

- I usually give it three stings and the suit goes back on.

These might not like this though If that comes to be the case, we'll.

(drill whirring) (lively music) - Lot more activity 'cause we're breathing, I'm talking a blue streak.

So we're gonna try to quick, smoke.

They get a little revved up.

They built this thing to last.

They said we're keeping thi hotel in business for a while.

(lively music) (drill whirring) Oh, heads.

- Let's go ahead and take a break.

I was feeling it myself almost to a point where like just stop today we gotta go.

You know what I mean, like I was getting to that point.

Cooling off in the truck, I started cramping up, my feet were cramping up, my hands were cramping up, my rib cage is cramping.

It's at a point where I'm not gonna get any better.

The strategy is, and Charlie's cool with this, I'm gonna let Charlie do the labor work.

I'll be there to coach, hold the camera so we can at least attempt to get this job done today.

If we get the brick out of the way and it's just a comb, I can get back involved.

- We might can do it, but let's not, no one's gonna go home in a body bag today.

That's the plan, right?

- That's right.

- So, let's do this.

- That's the plan.

And at this point I don't even care if we keep the bricks on, I mean, we'll try.

So let's work about getting this done faster 'cause.

- If we're not saving bricks, we could get this out real quick - Exactly, like if it's already damaged or whatever, just speed through it.

- Okay, just gonna go.

(drill whirring) (saw whirring) (drill whirring) We can stop here.

- Huh?

- We can go here over 'cause the comb stops.

- Oh does it?

- Yeah.

- Oh, labor get.

(drill whirring) (lively music) - So what I think we all do.

Give it another smoke application.

Go back down and get the bee vac.

- Oh, sorry.

Ooh, wow.

- [Dan] Yeah, keep dreading about that.

- [Charlie] That's all right.

We got about half an hour of sun - [Dan] That's all right.

We only really need the sun for what we just did.

Like the rest we could use a flashlight and it'll be fine.

And honestly this part's gonna go by so fast.

- Yeah.

- I don't need a heat stress break.

- It's really cool to just follow another remover.

So I do this a lot by myself and so doing it with somebody else, and somebody who's been doing it for a long time, and has some really smart and well-developed methodologies that I'm gonna steal from.

I'm gonna steal from wholesale.

- Go ahead.

- And the best form of flattery, what they say is stealing.

- [Dan] So here we are guys, here's all the bees.

They are years old.

You wanna do bee vac or you wanna cut comb?

- I'll do bee vac.

- Okay.

Tango, switch sides.

- Okay.

The nice thing about kind of doing this in the dark is that the bees could see us less.

We might have to switch.

- Is that.

- My hand's cramping up using this?

- Oh, I can jump in.

- Yeah, let's do it, let's switch.

- Okay.

- I'll step back over this way so that way we're not getting super tangle.

(lively music) That's where we're at right now with all this heat stroke treatment.

I've had five already, so I'm just real sensitive and you know, if it wasn't for Charlie, - Ow.

- Be cool with it and picking up the slack.

- [Charlie] This would be another day for sure.

- [Dan] Yes, it absolutely would 'cause I'm at that limit.

Got a bee in my shirt somewhere.

(lively music) Gonna sleep like a baby tonight.

I'm ready for a road burger, and a drive home, and a long night's sleep.

All right bro, thanks man.

- Yes sir.

(lively music) (music begins) For more information about Charlie Bee Company, including new and exciting removals, visit us online as charliebee.com.