Still doing cutouts.

[TX Ashurst]

After a very mild and moist spring and summer, there are bees everywhere around here. I am still getting calls to come get bees, in fact I received 2 today: 1 for bees building exposed comb on the outside of a barn; 1 for bees in a little house next to a school where the administrators are still talking about whether they can have bees flying around that close to the school (why they think they have any choice in it beats me).

I took up a colony of bees that had built comb under a playhouse last Thursday night. I knew there were about 22 combs, but I thought they were only about 18" long. Turns out they were all close to 30" long. It was an absolutely monstrous colony and all the wax was fairly new, no older than this season. I hived them and they fill 2 deeps. Because it was an easy removal and I got the queen, I only charged $50, although it took me almost 2 hours to get it done. I gave the lady some honeycomb with honey and I have about 4 gallons of honey I can bottle or feed back to the bees. The fun thing with this one was that the lady and her teenage son were so fascinated by what I was doing that (in spite of my cautions and recommendations) they kept sneaking up and standing just behind me so they could see better. Amazingly, they didn't get stung, nor even head butted. These were extremely gentle bees! I've never worked bees before that wouldn't get hostile when I cut out their comb. In the end, I was showing off by gathering up double handfuls of bees hanging from the timbers and shaking them into the hive.

Yes, life is good.

[beyondthesidewalks]

I live about an hour and a half south of Dallas and my phone has been ringing also. Cut some bees out of a Deer Hunter's camper and out of an older lady's homemade wooden Armadillo trap in the last few weeks. Seventy degree days in December are wonderful but short lived. It's in the low forties with a cold mist constantly falling right now. The Lusby swarm frames come in real handy. Thanks to the Lusbys and Barry for sharing them. I'll use these cold nights to make more swarm frames. I've bought the local Walmart and Home Depot out of tiny hinges!

[honeyman46408]

beyond
Try useing a piece of rubber (a piece of old inner tube) insteed of hinges LOTS cheaper

[Ross]

I have turned down more swarm calls and cutouts in Oct, Nov, and Dec this year than ever. I looked at one Sunday, 25 feet up in an oak that had 8 nice combs about deep size built on the under side of a big limb. There was a hole and a hollow 4 inches away that they weren't using. That's the second or third call this fall for bees outside of a tree. I wonder why?

[Will]

In these bees in Texas, how many drones are you seeing, if any??

Thanks,

Will


Man, this is some crazy weather.

[beyondthesidewalks]

Try useing a piece of rubber (a piece of old inner tube) insteed of hinges LOTS cheaper

I tried using some plastic pipe strap that I had on hand. That didn't work out too good. The frames wanted to stay closed or partially closed and made trying to use them a real pain. It upset me and the bees. Fortunately I only made one of those as a test. I immediately tossed that frame aside. The rest had bonafide hinges and they worked great. When I come across some rubber like innertube, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the tip.

[beyondthesidewalks]

In these bees in Texas, how many drones are you seeing, if any??

Man, this is some crazy weather.

Now that you mention it, I don't think I saw a single drone in either hive. The hive in the camper was HUGE. Lots of honey and it was a little on the bitter side indicating to me that it was made from wild sunflower. Wild sunflower produces a bitter tasting honey and grows profusely in my area. Fortunately, it doesn't bloom until late June. I pull any honey from my hives before the wild sunflower blooms and then let the bees winter on the bitter honey. They have produced large amounts of this honey in the past. It's only good for cooking from my experience. BTW, the hive absconded after being hived. Such is life...

The Armadillo trap contained a swarm that had not been there but a short while. Obviously a late swarm but I took them anyway as a favor to the old lady who owned the trap. It was made by her late husband and holds some sentimental value to her.

Yes, this is crazy weather. Two years of drought with very little honey flow followed by a late extremely wet spring. It rained continuously when flowers should have been blooming. Now this late, warm and very dry Fall but we're still 15 inches ahead of our average annual rainfall. Doesn't make a lick of sense.

[TX Ashurst]

Well, the calls have finally slowed down. I got one last Friday from a guy who said there were bees living in a cedar tree by his front porch. He didn't know for sure they were honeybees, but he said, "they were really small." Sounds to me like they are those dratted little wasps, so I told him it would be $65 to drive up there (about an hour away) and check it out. He mumbled something about expecting a beekeeper to come get them for free and he was going to call somebody else. I happily told him to go ahead, and he hasn't called back. I surely hope that is the last call of the year. I've got all the bees I want, and my garage is full of buckets of crushed comb waiting for a turn in my little solar wax melter.

BTW, I have noticed drones in several of my cutouts, including the last one I did, from the exterior of a barn. Not a lot of them, but they are there. I imagine that this colder weather in the last week will see them pushed out of the hives, but I haven't checked.

[RonS]

Just this morning I received a call from a fellow in New Braunfels asking me to remove a hive from his attic. After asking if he was sure it was a bee hive and not paper wasps (two other trips ended in paper wasp discovery after the owner insisted the critters were honey bees), he said that he had a pest control business spray them in his eaves, but they returned after a few months in his attic. This is one of those attics that you have to crawl up through a small ceiling entrance. Seems that he needs air conditioning work up there and the bees attack when the entry is opened. My first thought was comb and honey contaminated with pesticides, and the second was being in a small crawl space with a hive of hot bees. I told him what was entailed and that I was not willing to crawl around his attic. I had a call about a month ago that also revealed pesticide application and a cut out. When I told the homeowner about what was required to remove the bees from the wall and about the effect of pesticides, we mutually decided not to do it. I did not even discuss a price.

I have yet to do a cut out, but I am considering accepting commissions this spring.