Beekeeper isn't in my job description

This is a picture of the top of one of the 10 foot tall columns that support our front porch. Silly us, we thought they were covered over on the top. That is, until we noticed literally hundreds of bees flying in and out and around the top of this column. The XO climbed up on a ladder and reached over with the camera to get a pic to assess the situation. He wisely chose not to get too close!
I'm all for having bees around to pollinate our landscape (especially since our yard is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildscape Backyard), but when there are this many bees right outside your front door, you have small children, and there have been africanized (or "killer") honey bees found within a few miles of you you're kind of forced to do something about the situation. We called a local exterminator who showed up in a full bee suit and took care of the bees for us. He said that they had probably been in there for years and that there was "a ton" of honeycomb in that column. I asked him to guess how many bees were in that colony and his answer shocked me - "several hundred thousand". Wow!
Oh, the joys of home ownership!