George Fergusson
09-09-2006, 09:21 AM
Got a call from a fellow this morning that's looking to have a honey bee colony removed from the wall of his sauna. I told him I'd get back to him. He said they swarmed on the outside wall earlier this summer and he figured they'd just move on, but instead, they moved in, coming and going through a small hole in the outside wall. The outside is shingles over wood, the inside is homosote (that fiber board). They're in the stud space.
My only concerns are:
a) time of year. I don't need nor particularly want more bees this late in the season. If I did the cutout, it would be for what honey and wax I could get, and the fee.
b) He wants the bees GONE, which pretty much means I should vacuum them up and haul off the comb. I hate killing bees.
Short of cutting out the combs and putting them in frames, hoping I get the queens, and setting up the hive by the sauna to collect stragglers for a few days, what other options are there? If I did the above, I'd be stuck with another single deep hive to try to pump up for winter.
What do people normally charge for such a removal?
As an aside, I collected a hanging swarm about a half mile from this place earlier this summer. There's clearly a hive or 2 in the area nobody seems to know about that's throwing swarms.
Heck, I'll probably do it, somehow, for the experience if nothing else. This would be my first cutout.
My only concerns are:
a) time of year. I don't need nor particularly want more bees this late in the season. If I did the cutout, it would be for what honey and wax I could get, and the fee.
b) He wants the bees GONE, which pretty much means I should vacuum them up and haul off the comb. I hate killing bees.
Short of cutting out the combs and putting them in frames, hoping I get the queens, and setting up the hive by the sauna to collect stragglers for a few days, what other options are there? If I did the above, I'd be stuck with another single deep hive to try to pump up for winter.
What do people normally charge for such a removal?
As an aside, I collected a hanging swarm about a half mile from this place earlier this summer. There's clearly a hive or 2 in the area nobody seems to know about that's throwing swarms.
Heck, I'll probably do it, somehow, for the experience if nothing else. This would be my first cutout.