My son noticed that we had a ton of wasp’s nests under the overhang on our front porch. He came inside and said, “Hey Dad – I know a guy I went to high school with who can take those down for you.”
So I was thinking that there was a college student friend of my son who graduated from South Pasadena High School a couple of years ago – who had a side job during college working for a bee removal service or something. I said, “Sure thing – hook me up!”.
Exactly 30 minutes later I met an exceptional young man – Mr. Henry Balding. What I quickly came to find out is that Henry is just now graduating from South Pasadena High School – the Class of 2020. Plus – he owns his own business specializing in beekeeping, humane beehive removals and honey sales.
So how on earth does this young man know enough about bees to be running his own business right out of high school? Apparently when he was 15 years old his family had a bee problem and hired a bee removal service to take care of it. The service removed the bees and put them in a man-made beehive (an enclose structure in which some honey bee species live and raise their young). Then the service said they’d come back and take the beehive with them later. The service never came back to retrieve the beehive.
Henry decided to ask his mom to take him to a professional bee store and get all the supplies to take care of the beehive. So now – just graduating high school – he has literally years of experience taking care of bees and knowing how they act.
Henry arrived in a pickup truck with several ladders and an active beehive in the back. He took a look around the house and said, “You’ve got a fertile breeding ground for wasps. It’s like a wasp incubator around here.”
He then offered to clear the entire structure of all the beehives for modestly more than the price to just remove the nests off the porch overhang.
Henry went straight to work. The process is to first spray the nests in order to stun or kill the wasps. Step 2 is removing the nests.
He fearlessly disarmed and removed about 15 wasps nests from my house – all of which required working on a ladder.
Afterward we stood around talking about his business. Henry raises bees and makes honey which he sells to local independent grocery stores. He claims that his real honey is far superior to the imported and mass-produced honey that most of us see in the retail stores. I asked him if he’d ever been stung by a bee. “Yup – thousands of times” he said.
I cannot recommend this outstanding South Pasadena High School graduate of the Class of 2020 any more highly! Fantastic work ethic, professional service, and prices that are fair.
At this time of graduation it warms my heart to see the next generation of entrepreneurs emerging into the workforce. Well done South Pasadena High – whatever you’re teaching those kids – keep doing it!
Henry Balding of “Balding’s Bees” can be reached via email at: BaldingsBeesLA@gmail.com.
I also understand that Henry is working on a website to sell his honey online. You can check out his amazing Instagram feed here: @baldings_bee_co.
