Teacher in Ca needs help

[tvequilt]

hi

i am totaly new to all of this. i've always thought it would be great to be a beekeeper and apparently the bees think so to because they have built a hive in the wall of my house. i didn't even know there was a place to do it but, they found it. anyway, i would like to trap the bees and put them in a hive in the backyard (not one in the walls of my house) and hopefully they will move their honey and wax out of the walls. i really don't want to call an exterimanator and tear out a wall. i am not sure if the honey will be ok to eat (if this is sucessful) but i would like to use the wax with my art students. i have done some research and the trapping idea seems viable but not very sucessful. can anybody help?
thanks, (sorry about the lower case typing, the dog ran through the house chasing a bee, caught the cord to the keyboard and knocked the board on the floor, now we have no caps. gotta get a new board today)
teresa

[peggjam]

In order to sucessfully trap out a hive, you will need a couple frames of brood and bees to cover them. Place these close to the hole you plan to trap them out of, in a box of course, LOL. You will need to close all the entrances to the nest except the one you plan to trap them out of. Make a cone of window screening with a hole that allows only one bee to pass through at a time, make the cone quite long, and place close to the entrance of the hive you are trapping into. This will take awhile to do, as the queen in the nest will continue to lay eggs. You proably will not get the queen, but there is always that possiblity. Once you have trapped them out, you turn them loose to rob out the nest in the wall by removing the cone, and smearing alittle bit of honey around the entrance hole. This is the basics, and the one to talk to is iddee, as he does alot of these, and can give you some of the finer points of trapping. Good luck.

[Sundance]

I would recommend contacting a
local beekeeper if you don't have
the proper equipment. Check for
local beekeepers associations.

Or perhaps someone on this board
is close enough to remove the swarm.
There is usually a fee involved, and
defineatly a fee if a cutout is done.

Good luck.

[iddee]

Hello, Teresa

Trapping is a highly sucessful way of removing a colony if all the criteria fits. It must be in a position that you can close off all exits and have the only exit in the center of a 6 inch square. You must also have a frame of young bees from an existing hive, with eggs that have not yet hatched. Then you must have a hive with frames into which they can go and set up housekeeping. You need to be in an area where other people will neither harrass nor spray the bees when you aren't there. You need someone that can look at the area daily to be sure they haven't clogged the exit and haven't found a new exit.

If you have all this, reply to me and I will send you some photos of my traps and details on how to go about it.

[GeeBeeNC]

Make a cone of window screening

Pegjam, you may feel like I'm nitpicking, but my first extraction experience wasn't as easy as it could have been.

Window screen is very flexible. 1/8" hardware cloth will yeild a more rigid cone that will conform to the desired shape and hold it.

My window screen cone sagged and closed itself off, slowing the extraction.

1/8" hardware cloth isn't the easiest to find. TSC in town here and the big box stores only carry down to 1/4". I had to check 3 specialty hardware stores before I found some.

A couple places even thought I was talking about emory cloth!

My extraction took 2 months but I did get the queen and freed a public school yard of a hive.

[Michael Bush]

The nice thing about window screen is you can get it adjusted and unravled on the tip where the drones can push their way out but the loose ends won't let any bee back in. This is harder to do on hardware cloth. Also the flexibility of the window screen makes it easier to conform to uneven surfaces, like tree bark. Every situation is different and you need to use what seems the best for the situation.

[peggjam]

"Pegjam, you may feel like I'm nitpicking, but my first extraction experience wasn't as easy as it could have been."

Not at all. I find trapping is not only time consuming, but frustrating as well. Any and all input on techinques used by others is important and worth consideration.

[Cody Anbeachaire]

Oooh. This is a tricky situation. I’ll probably be lynched for suggesting this, but here it goes anyway…

It is better to destroy the colony or have them professionally removed rather than attempt to coax them out using a “bee escape”.

(wow, I can actually hear the chins drop in this forum)

Now before members grab a rope and look for a strong limb, hear me out.
This is a suggestion ONLY if you cannot find a beekeeper, hobbyist or otherwise, to help you. If you can find a keeper to give you a hand, then by all means… best of luck and happy keeping. But if not,

The reasons are that bees in a wall can be difficult to manage. I remove bees professionally and I can tell you of the mess that “bee escapes” can cause. If done improperly, a homeowner can find him/herself with a cloud of angry bees hovering around the entrance and/or thousands of lost bees making their way INSIDE the home through openings typically from light fixtures and vents. And remember, you’re in Southern CA and therefore in “Africanized” territory, use caution. I’m in SE Texas and can tell you that AHB (Africanized Honey Bee) requires proper forbearance.

Also, I have conversed with several homeowners wishing to keep the bees that have taken up residence in their walls only to hear of their frustration and then discouraged from the hobby. Ill-tempered feral bees can also cause potential keepers to lose interest.

I recommend to my callers that the best thing to do is have them professionally dealt with and THEN acquire bees, queen, and equipment from a bee broker. That way, you’ll start the hobby under a controlled environment with a domestic – and hopefully docile – breed.

I do this not to attract business, but honestly to promote the hobby/profession. Besides, the more domestic bees around town, the more swarms for me to collect.

But like I said, if you can find a keeper to help you, then you should approach it as if it were an adventure. And you may be able to find a professional removal service that saves the bees, rather than killing them... maybe.

…

Now take it easy with me, members. I approach removal’s with pragmatism, not emotion.

Cheers.

[iddee]

No problem Cody...I understand completely... The rope in the tree is for decoration. Come a little closer and I'll show you how it works. :D :D :D

Seriously, in my first post, I stated you had to have a frame of eggs from a hive if you wanted to trap bees out. That insured me that a beek would be involved. Than I withheld the details until I was sure there would be one. You info is sound. Your method is questionable. ;)

[peggjam]

"Now before members grab a rope and look for a strong limb, hear me out."

I got the rope, anybody down that way got a strong limb?....... tongue.gif .

I aggree, that some caution is needed, and that one should go in with a plan, and a backup plan...and have their eyes open. But, if they want to try, why not. The easiest way to undo the harm should they get into the house is to take off the cone, which of course won't do much for the ones who get into the house. :eek:

[tvequilt]

Thank you all for all the advice. i am still not exactly what way to go. Time, energy and effort, versus paying some one to do the job for me...it's a tough choice. if i do go with Cody's idea, can i still use the wax for school or will the chemicals be a problem?
T.