When Didi and Jiivapriya moved to Canby Street, they were surprised to find that there were tenants already living at the new location of Tender Leaf Preschool... 10,000 of them. A large colony of Italian Honeybees were living in a large, almost fully dead, Maple tree in the play yard.
The fate of the honey bees looked grim, as certification requirements called for the large dying tree to be removed from the play yard due to safety concerns. Even more solemn, were the words "extermination fee" scrawled upon the Maple tree removal plans of several local arborists.
For many days, we were perplexed... torn between certification requirements and the desire to keep the bees and their long lived hive... when our kind-hearted carpenter, Marc, and his bee-keeping wife, came forward to help us. Passionate about saving the bees, Marc found a way to salvage the beehive, contain the bees, and to simultaneously protect the arborist as the needed dead trunk and branch removal took place. Using a mesh screen and a smoker to calm the bees, Marc was able to contain the colony as almost all of the Maple was cut down. At the end of the day, all participants, including the bees were safe. A 7-foot Maple trunk remains for the honeybees of Tender Leaf where they can be seen busy at work and where they add on their new role as "teachers" in our nature study curriculum. 
