Woke up this morning with an email from someone wanting bees out of their wall. So I went to a job I had to do and then went a couple of miles down the road to the customers house after I was done with work.
I had to remove the light fixture and then glue the cone-assembly right to the wall with some great adhesive I found today at Lowe's.
I brought my whacked top-bar trap-out hive that I slapped together with spare wood.
Everything seemed to go really well. They were PISSED, though, when I started taking the light fixture off. There were multiple bees attempting to sting me, and one eventually got me on my shoulder/neck area - no biggie. It climbed through my hood on my jacket, under the veil.
The tape you see at the top of the assembly was just an added thing I added in case the glue did set too well at first. I didn't really need the tape because the adhesive was really good.
Anyhow, enough of my babbling.................here's the video and some photos:
By the way, this video turned out really good. The audio of the bees is just phenomenal.
Oh.... you would have known RIGHT AWAY if they were africanized. There would be no doubt in your mind. They are just bearding due to the heat.
They will be there when you get back.
But yes, some of them were pursuing me around the corner to the driveway when I first took the light fixtire down from their hole and and placing the cone on. But hey, that's how bees are SUPPOSED to act. I'm not troubled by it at all. That's what suits are for.
Does anyone in Florida want to volunteer to go pick up my bees from this lady's house in Winter Haven, FL? I'm still stuck in Texas on a nightmarish project that keeps dragging on and on and on and on and on. I just emailed the owner of the house the other day and asked her if the bees were still hanging outside the hive at night - even though the weather has gotten cooler in Florida - and she confirmed that they WERE still on the outside at night. She said she'd be patient until I got back, but would rather have them gone.
Anyone want to help a bee-brutha out? I will clean out your hives of AFB and wax moths with my tongue for the next two years if you can help me out................or something like that.
Send me the airfare there and back and I'll gladly do it for ya Pat! lol
They will be fine until you can collect them. Seems like the lady is starting to enjoy the whole experience.
Soooooooooooooo, once upon a time, in late-September, I did a trap-out for a nice young lady in Florida. Little did I know I'd be away from home for about 3-4 months working in Texas.
Well, I was able to fly-in for a break in the project and hopefully spend a week-or-two here in Florida.
I FINALLY PICKED UP THE TRAP-OUT !!!!!
I went to her house yesterday evening while all the bees were inside and calm. I placed a piece of duct tape over the three holes and put the hive in the trunk. I also got my trap-out cone off her house, of course. No issues whatsoever.
Here's a photo of them making themselves at home at their NEW home in my backyard. I still need to get a proper stand for them, especially one that won't expand in the hot sun and make the hive uneven. I also need to take that temp roof off and place the real roof on. There's no telling what kind of hive mess I will find when I pop some of those top bars out. But one thing is for certain, the queen must have come out of the trapped-out hive and into my hive because it's been at least three months and the hive is thriving.....or at least seems to be because there are a lot of bees flying around.
I placed them right by my screened-in patio so me and the kids can have a front-row seat to the entrance of the hive. It's a poor-man's observation hive, I guess you could say:
Here's a photo of them making themselves at home at their NEW home in my backyard. I still need to get a proper stand for them, especially one that won't expand in the hot sun and make the hive uneven. I also need to take that temp roof off and place the real roof on. There's no telling what kind of hive mess I will find when I pop some of those top bars out. But one thing is for certain, the queen must have come out of the trapped-out hive and into my hive because it's been at least three months and the hive is thriving.....or at least seems to be because there are a lot of bees flying around.
Sweet! Get someone to take photos for you when you do open it. I'm curious as to how well they pulled comb with no assistance. I've been following this thread for so long I feel like those are my bees!
Yeah, my wife is getting batteries for the REAL camera tonight. My cell phone takes pretty good pics and vids, but it just isn't the same as a real camera, as yáll well know.
Tonight I have a lot of staples to pull out of that the tarp material I have on it right now. I won't be removing actual top bars until the daylight, though. I just want the real roof on it tonight. I'd rather pull all those staples out with the bees in for the night.
Well, to be honest, when the lady told me via email a few days ago (while I was still in Texas) that they were still alive, I was a tad shocked. I was expecting that the queen didn't make it out and that they wouldn't have enough momentum (even with the queen) to survive through the winter. But, the winter here in FL has been mild (ok, quit laughing all you northerners). The queen coming out of a trap-out is a risky proposition, but looks like she made it. And no, (as I mentioned previously) I didn't place brood/eggs in there to start off the trap-out because I didn't have any at the time.
The bad news is I just saw evidence that this hive is probably infected with wax moths.
The good news is, "my" bees are very defensive of this hive because I saw two of them wrestling and flying away with what looked like a wax-moth larvae to the ground. This is the evidence I have that it's infected. I guess I'll find out just how bad when I remove the roof in the next day-or-so.
Just a guess, but, if you are seeing wax moth evidence, you likely don't have a queen, or the hive is very weak. A good strong hive will not have wax worms.
I would compress the hive. Remove what comb they can't protect that is infested and freeze it to kill the wax moths. Try to get them down one box smaller than they currently are so they can guard the combs they have.
Michael, Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have a smaller hive to put them in for now, but I can surely place a follower-board in there of some sort.
So the other day a gentleman called me who oversees a retirement mobile home park here in Lakeland, FL. Me and a buddy already removed some bees over a year ago from this neighborhood, but I believe I'll be going this one alone.
I stopped by to take photos today and scope-out what I'll be dealing with.
Alright, I did my first inspection this morning of this hive that''s from the trap-out I originally did back in late September.
First off, there's plenty of capped brood, so the queen DID make it out.
I was only able to inspect half the hive thus far because of time constraints.
I did not see ANY sign of wax moths in this first go-round, but I'm sure there could be some towards the front entrance. So basically, what I have seen thus far, the hive is VERY healthy and thriving.
In fact, here's the comb they are building on the last top bar towards the back. Notice there are only about 4 top bars left in this hive. That's how much they've built since late September....lol.....unbelievable.
Here are a few other top bars I pulled out. I had to do just MINIMAL cutting to separate either attached comb and/or propolis, so they did a fine job keeping it all straight, at least from what I've seen thus far. I'm assuming the front part is straight too or else the back part wouldn't be.
Also, I had my 7-year-old son take these photos from the safety of behind the screened-in porch... hehehe.. So therefore, the photography could have been better, but that's what I have to work with at the moment.
Send me an e-mail cchoganjr@scrtc.com I cannot attach to a private message here at beesource.
cchoganjr
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