I’m Art Hall and I never planned on becoming a beekeeper.  I grew up on a farm so I had been around bee hives for years but never took care of them–crazy beekeepers did that job. After wild bees moved into the retaining wall behind our San Jose home 3 years in a row, the beekeeper we paid to remove them suggested that I become a beekeeper and just put them in a hive. My wife heard about all the bees dieing from Colony Collapse Disorder around the same time, so I thought it over. Well, that was a few years ago and now I’m the crazy beekeeper that rescues bees from other peoples houses and retaining walls. I have a few bee hives (more than I’ll admit to my wife) in the south bay and I do bee removals from San Francisco to Monterey in California. As a member of the Santa Clara County Bee Guild, I do simple swarm captures for just a small donation to the guild. When I remove bees from walls, attics, electrical boxes, mail boxes, and roofs, I charge by the hour. The honey is an added bonus and it helps pay for all the supplies that the bees need. Until I started beekeeping, I had no idea how much better fresh, raw honey tastes. Now I’m filling orders for people all over the Bay Area and my only “advertising” is word of mouth.During some bee rescues the home owner asks if they can keep the bees. This is how I got into teaching beekeeping and now I have students all over the Bay Area. The students keep me on my toes and fortunately I have other guild members to call on when I get the inevitable question that I can’t answer.