Two hive boxes containing thousands of honeybees that were removed from the Spurwink Rod & Gun clubhouse last month are now being kept at a farm in Falmouth.

Gun club president Tammy Walter said beekeeper Keith Kettelhut returned to the clubhouse on Sept. 30 to pick up the hive boxes to then transport to an apiary, or bee yard, at Tidewater Farm in Falmouth for the winter. The yard is run by the Cumberland County Beekeepers Association and is used for educational and outreach purposes.

In late August the club discovered that 15,000-20,000 honeybees had built a hive in a basement window of the clubhouse and recruited Kettelhut to remove them. In September Kettelhut visited the property twice to transfer pieces of honeycomb from the building to hive boxes where they were being stored.

He told the Current in late September that his intention was to return to the property a few days after his first visit to the clubhouse, Sept. 2, to pick up the bees, but apparently not all of the bees had settled into the boxes yet. But last week, the bees were finally ready to be transported.

Walter, who grew up on a 16-acre farm in Scarborough and whose uncle was a beekeeper, said without Kettelhut’s help, the bees likely would have died.

“According to Keith, given that they were a late summer swarm, they did not have enough time to build up sufficient comb and stores of honey to survive the winter,” Walter said.

“By moving them,” she added, “They now at least stand a chance.”

Two hive boxes containing bees, which were removed from the Spurwink Rod & Gun clubhouse last month, are now maintained by beekeeper Keith Kettelhut among several other boxes at his beeyard at Tidewater Farm in Falmouth. Courtesy photoKeith Kettelhut, a beekeeper from Durham, rests his hand on the two hive boxes he transported to the Falmouth farm from the Spurwink Rod & Gun Club in Cape Elizabeth last week.