Beehives at site of Northridge Mall will be relocated to farm in Elkhorn

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As crews prepare Northridge Mall for demolition, they've now identified something to save. Bee-lieve it or not, two beehives found at the long-ago closed shopping mall are being spared.

"I open it up and I saw that was what I was looking for," said Nazim Agushi, Balestrieri Environmental and Development supervisor.

Northridge Mall may have ended on a sour note in 2003, but today, the buzz is something sweet.

"I was so excited," said Agushi.

That's because Nazim Agushi spotted honeybees, two large hives. One near the former Younkers store. 

"And then also, I have a second back at JC Penney, the lower level - I have another hive just like that, the other one is a lot bigger than this," said Agushi.

So Agushi called his boss, hoping his request to save the bees wouldn't be met with a "buzz off!"

"When he brought it to my attention, I just said hey, it's the right thing to do, you know, it's the little things in life," said Ken Balestrieri, Balestrieri Environmental & Development owner.

Coincidentally, both men have a honeybee background. Agushi, who's from Kosovo, collected bees with his father. A sweet thought now, as his father has since passed away.

"Some good memories when I was working with my dad, and when I was just using the smoke, it just kind of got me because I was using the same methods back home," said Agushi.

Agushi smoked the Northridge hives to safely calm the bees, then carried the queens to their new boxed homes. He'll watch over the boxes this week.

The overgrown weeds in this parking lot created the perfect environment for these honeybees. You can tell by the color of the sweet honeycomb that they've been here for several years.

By Friday, Agushi expects to transport the hives to their new home, a 100-acre farm in Elkhorn. It's his boss's farm.

"Honey's good. I have it every morning with my tea, about all I can tell you," said Balestrieri.

The Balestrieris already have 14 hives.

"So, the hive right here is empty and we're gonna be putting the bees from Northridge into this box right here."

"You can see the bees in the background, I mean you can literally go up and almost touch them. They're not gonna harm you unless you actively, you know, go after them. And you know, in the future, when Northridge gets redeveloped, we can bring them back, you know," said Balestrieri.

Isn't that just the bee-est?!