A Kansas City beekeeper is finding safe, new homes for Missouri's state insect to 'bee'

Honey bees may not be native to North America, but the insects are critical to pollinating field crops and fruit trees across the region — not to mention the delicious honey they make. Occasionally, though, Missouri's official state insects make their homes in inconvenient places. One local beekeeper is known for stepping in to help.
Honey bees come and go on a recent morning in June, buzzing around a crack in the siding of a stone house built in 1920.

They’ve built their hive beneath the floorboards of an upstairs bedroom in Dan Tarwater’s south Kansas City home. Tarwater’s the caretaker of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post next door. He says the bees aren’t a problem, but it’s time for them to go.

To do the job, Tarwater called Dan Krull, a local beekeeper who volunteers at Manheim Gardens in Midtown. Krull keeps hives on the urban hillside there.