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I need advice for transferring feral bees

8K views 51 replies 9 participants last post by  kopelia 
#1 ·
I have a swarm that has already settled into some cinderblocks in the back lot of my father's auto garage. It took me a few weeks to convince him to let me try to transfer them to a hive. I purchased a starter kit with one deep, entrance, queen divider for future expansion, entrance, and top. How do we get the bees out? I have ten 10" racks already loaded with natural beeswax. I have read online that lemongrass essential oil works for attracting them to a new home. They have already built a considerable amount of comb and i am not sure how deep it goes since the wall of cinderblocks is about 4 feet high. Any suggestions/hints? Thanks in advance!
 
#28 ·
kopelia... I would caution against just getting as much comb as you can get. You really only want to get good comb that has good brood on it. Make sure you have enough bees to completely cover and work the comb you save. If not, you will be inviting SHBs and Wax Moths. The bees will have to work hard to repair the combs, knit them to the frames, clean up the hive you give them, so, don't overwhelm them with comb.

Also, I don't think I would start them out by splitting the brood between plastic frames. I would wait and add the frames later, between frames of bees, but not splitting the brood nest of a colony that has just been through a traumatic experience. You can split the brood in an established hive, but, I don't like to do it in a new colony that has a lot of work to clean up.

cchoganjr
 
#29 ·
Thanks for this advice, what does comb with brood look like? I've seen pictures on google, but is there like a telltale sign? And I should probably take just that comb then and leave racks open or just a couple filled ones on the ends? How many racks should I try and fill? Questions, questions...lol
 
#30 ·
Comb that has capped and/or uncapped brood will come in several different colors. Most often, but not always, will have a semicircle ring from one inch to 4 inches of honey above the brood. Chocolate color indicates the brood is about ready to emerge. Brown or tan tells you it is a week to 15 days from emerging, and bright yellow is newly capped brood. Search the net to view what brood looks like and be prepared to know the difference between brood and capped honey which also comes in the colors already listed. Have your mentor point out the difference. It is almost impossible to just describe the difference so you would understand. You need to see it, from then on, you will recognize it. I would recommend against putting a lot of capped honey in the box. Concentrate on good capped brood comb.

cchoganjr
 
#31 ·
I think I can see larva in the photo. In the bottom left center where you see the exposed comb. It looks like there is larva in there and the bees haven't capped it yet as it is still in the early stages of growth. Better photos of the cells will tell. The larva looks like a small white grain of rice. After it grows it curls up in the bottom of the cell and has circular ridges in it.
There is a photo of some larva like I am referring to on this page. The 1st photo.
http://www.richardton-taylor.k12.nd.us/lindsey.kirschenheiter/insect.page.htm

Also since there is no queen excluder she could be laying eggs in the honey. Be sure to clean/strain it well.
 
#34 ·
{I will do my best to get the queen out...what happens if I don't find her? Will they "make" another}


If you have some eggs or brood no more than 4 days old they will make a new queen, that is another reason why getting the brood is so important.

Of all the advice you are getting none is more important than what Cleo Hogan is giving you. He is definitely the Guru of feral bee trapping.
 
#35 ·
Awesome...I am so happy to have found this forum! Everything seems to be falling into place. Now to get those bees into their new home and making me some sweet, sweet, honey. I'd rather eat that than candy any day! Another forum instantly told me just to kill them and buy a $20 box of bees if I wanted to start beekeeping so bad...hah! They didn't even try to help me.
 
#36 ·
Get back in contact with the person that told you to buy some $20.00 packages, and find out who is selling them. I'll buy all of them I can get. Bee prices have changed in the last few years. Anymore, a $25.00 queen is a bargain. I paid $96.00 a piece for some 3 pound packages of bees this spring.
 
#37 ·
Right! I think the guy was just being a jerk. It was like they were thinking: "How dare a newbie come here to our kingdom and ask questions of the all knowing bee people?! Grrr...away with you girl!" I'll go back and ask if you want...I'm not afraid of the scary mean bee people. Lol
 
#43 ·
Well the gentleman I am working with tore the wall apart and did not listen to any advice I had gotten here. The bees are still in the wall but slowly moving up into the box after I put some comb on the frames after removing the plastic sheets. I had to do it while the guy was gone, but I had to go w my gut and what I was told here. I hope with this mans 40 plus yrs of beekeeping he knows what he's doing.
 
#45 ·
Here's a few pics of what's happening so far...
Closeup:

The Wall:

Bees:

They go all the way down to the bottom of the wall.

Forgot to get a pic of the comb I put into the frames, but I checked them this morning and there were tons more bees in the box now. Also took out five frames. So three have comb bits on them and two with the beeswax coated plastic. I had no idea the amount of bees in that wall! I also put the top back on the box properly. He started with the two small holes on the bottom and tried to smoke them out up into the box. We got one of the blocks off and I used the comb from that block. It was empty...I'm hoping they were about to fill it up. Another piece of comb had tons of pollen all in the cells so here's hoping they don't just rob it and take it back into the wall!
 
#46 ·
Nothing to report yet, the wall still looks the same, bees happliy flying in and out full of pollen...there has GOT to be a queen deep in that wall and probably all the wa at the bottom. As for the man who was supposed to help me, he made the mess ou see and then left for two weeks for vacation. It has been very rain down here in S. Fla lately so the bees have been very aggressive and also it's not the best weather to be smoking and cutting up a hive! I am now coming to the conclusion that the entire wall needs to come down as I have seen scouts in empty cells in the cinderblocks, so they are definitely thinking of expanding. Is there anyone in the Ft Lauderdale area that would help a girl out? I still really want to save these bees as I have already invested a bit of time and money into this. Or else if it comes down to it, anyone who wants to come and get these bees I'll just take a jar full of honey and a nice piece of comb in it. I'm getting kind of frustrated because evertime the weather is good the guy isn't around or if the guy is around the weather is bad. ARGH!
 
#48 ·
Took a look inside today since it was the first clear day in about a week and no bees inside. The comb was brown and smelled kind of funny so I took it out. Funny thing is, a few hours after that some if the larger bees were flying in and out of the box. So we will see what happens. I'm headed over there now just to observe them as its sunset. I'd like to see the full scale of the hive as I've only been able to see it in the hottest part of the day or when it's overcast and the bees were very jumpy. They are pretty mild otherwise and let you get pretty close. I'll try and post a few pics for you of some close ups of the hive as soon as I can :) Patience pays, right?
 
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