A swarm of honeybees had one McKees Rocks neighborhood buzzing in May.
A flowering Northern Catalpa tree on Wayne Avenue, near Tracey Pedersen’s Greydon Avenue house, has been home to a large beehive for about a decade. A beekeeper once told her the hive was impossible to reach because the tree was too tall.
When bees started swarming in the hedge in front of her house, Pedersen knew what she had to do. She gave a call to Pattie Zyroll, a beekeeper she and her husband worked with at Elkem Metals in Moon Township.
“She came down on her lunch the next day and rescued this hive,” Pedersen said. “She was really excited because she had lost her hive, I think during COVID.”
Zyroll began beekeeping in 2010, and became a member of the Beaver Valley beekeeper association after taking classes in Beaver County.
“It’s like my zen, it’s so calming,” she said.
She maintains four hives now and produces honey under the brand name Miss Bee Havin’. She started with two hives at her Robinson Township home, but moved them to Hopewell after neighbors complained.
According to a United Nations report, more than 75% of the world’s food crops rely on bees pollinating.
Although Zyroll is actually allergic to bees, something she found out after being stung so many times over the years, she didn’t hesitate to don her veil and beekeeper’s suit to answer Pedersen’s call.
With bee box in hand, she sprayed the swarm with water because when they’re wet, they can’t fly. “When the queen goes in, the other bees follow her,” Zyroll said.
While rounding up a swarm of 10,000 bees may sound intimidating to most people, it didn’t frighten Zyroll.
“When they swarm, before they leave the hive, they ingest a lot of honey and become heavy and can’t fly very far, so they’re very docile when you’re catching a swarm,” she said.
She was able to extract about 8,000 bees and take them back to her hives.
“This was a very good spring for honey,” she pointed out.
Zyroll used to sell her honey at farmers markets, but since beekeeping is more of a hobby these days, she relies on word of mouth for sales.
To purchase Miss Bee Havin’ natural honey, contact Zyroll at (412) 494-3807.
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Photos by Tracey Pedersen
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