Bob Gathany/Huntsville Times 

Greg Miles of Hendersonville, Tenn., vacuums bees from a large section of honeycomb that he 
removed from the ceiling of a condominium off Colony Drive in south Huntsville. 

His skills have 
everyone buzzing 

Condo breaking out in hives? 
Call Tennessee’s bee devotee 

By CHALLEN STEPHENS 

Times Staff Writer 
challens@htimes.com 

The stethoscope, pressed against the bedroom ceiling, carries the low hum of more than 
20,000 bustling sisters. 

Greg Miles drills a nickel-sized hole above his 
head. Nothing happens. He moves the drill 6 
inches to the right and repeats. A single worker 
bee plummets, catching flight before hitting the 
bedroom carpet. 

“There they are,” Miles says with an appraising eye. He corks the hole with crumpled paper 
and prepares to fetch his saw and vacuum hose. 

The lone honeybee whirs about the ceiling 
light. Miles reaches out and gently encloses his 
hand, allowing the insect to climb from his palm 
to the tip of his index finger. For a moment, it 
perches like a parakeet. “I can pretty much get 
along with the bees,” says Miles, letting it fly 
away. 

Not everybody is so willing to live among the 
honeybees. 

“We discovered them last year and we called 
several people, and no one wanted to touch 
them,” said Lana Stapler, president of the associ-

Bob Gathany/Huntsville Times 
After locating the source of the buzzing, Greg 
Miles eases the bees and their honeycomb out of 
a hole that he cut in the ceiling for access. 
ation for the condominiums off Colony Drive in 
south Huntsville. 

Stapler soon found that honeybees in the ceiling demand a special removal job that requires 
one of only a handful of beekeepers with a willingness to rip open a wall or ceiling and capture 
a live colony. 

Eventually the condo owners found Miles and 
his business, Miles Apiaries, in Hendersonville, 

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