[Arizona Agaves]

I have an open air hive to remove this weekend but I'm not sure which would be the best way to do this. The hive is under the eave of the roof about 12' high. I took a look at it last Saturday and at that time the center combs of the hive were at least 2 feet long by 2 feet wide.
According to the owner this hive has been there since about March of this year so I'm thinking the wax is still fairly fragile. One piece of advice I was given was that I could wet them down fairly well with water, scrape the comb and let it drop into a tote. My worries are that 1. alot of the comb will get really damaged and 2. I think I would run the risk of killing a lot of bees that are between the combs. Once that nectar starts running out of the combs you have a big sticky mess.
So I'm thinking cut the comb down one at a time, vacuum them off and keep going. Any better suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[NasalSponge]

3. They very well could be AHB so proceed with caution until you learn of their temperament.

 

[jip]

If not AFB, then I would start by bee vac'ing from one side, remove enough bees and then remove the comb. Then work your way in. Before you vac look for the queen. When I do cutouts I rarely smoke them.
Post some pics and update later. GOod luck!

 

[beekeeper1756]

Please post pics, I really want to see the combs and the pics.

Good luck.

 

[Arizona Agaves]

I doubt they are AHB. We were standing right underneath the hive and they could not have cared less...not my definition of AHB. I have only removed one hive so far that I would call agressive but I would not go so far as to label them AHB.

 

[dhood]

Just do it like a regular cutout, vaccuum remove combs and put them in frames. I just did one on an eve about 20-25 ft. up same situations.

here is a picture of it http://upstatebeeremoval.com/aboutus.aspx

Just a few suggestions, before you begin look for evidence that the bees have built comb in the eve, going in and out of the attic, ect. You may have more than what you see. If you see a place that the bees can run too, crack in the eve ect, caulk it up or they will hide there and run from the vaccuum. And have fun... :lpf:

 

[beez2010]

I'm not trying to be a smart-alec here, but I first want to point out that a bee "hive" is something made by man specifically intended for honeybees to live in. What you are going to do is remove a bee nest from someones home.

That being said, I think you have the general idea as far as cutting out the combs and brushing and/or vacuuming. If your vac has a crevice tool you can gently push the combs apart and get lots of bees from in betwen, also. Combs that large are going to be difficult to work with and it's going to be a real mess, but hopefully you'll learn alot and get a strong colony out of it.

I did one today that was similar to what you're describing. The home-owner told me that he was positive that it was a new nest this spring. The soffit was plywood and when I pulled it down I exposed 21 combs and probably at least 60k bees. Brood combs black as coal....very old nest. I used a vac and took it out comb by comb and some of the longer combs in two pieces. Nectar running everywhere and lots of very pissed off bees. I got stung 11 times....through my gloves (through the cloth on the wrists) and veil (because when I looked up to work the screen would be laying on my forehead and some got through to sting me there). The forehead is a lousy place to get stung by the way.

The suckiest part is that half way in I came to the realization that this nest was 100% eggless/broodless. Not even any drone brood. I only saw one queen cell and it didn't look like it had been used, so I don't know what the deal was. Maybe they had swarmed and become queenless, maybe they had a virgin or recently mated queen (I never found her). :scratch: Anyway, I took home about 12 lbs. of bees and did a newspaper combine with a weak hive I had that was in the process of making some queens....so I'll just have to keep an eye on 'em. All the comb and honey got pitched in 5 gallon buckets as more than half of it was uncapped and the mess was too big to deal with trying to save any of it. Dumped it out in the woods off some two-track road. Probably some critters with belly aches out there tonight. All-in-all I did OK because I charged $300.00 to remove this nest and then fix the house back up and bee-proof the cavity (closing it back up tomorrow). It's a living, I guess.

I see some folks really want some pics. I hope someone else will be there to take them, since it'll be a good trick to take pics when your gloves are soaked with yellow goo!

I should add that if you haven't used you bee vac before, don't run it very long at one time without letting it cool down and check after vacuuming a small number of bees to ensure that they are OK before you continue. I used my new Owens bee vac (Brushy Mountain) today. It worked OK. I'm going to write about it in the equipment forum.

Have fun!

Chris Harvey--Teakwood Organics

www.thewarrestore.com

 

[sjbees]

> .. if you haven't used you bee vac before, don't run it
> very long at one time without letting it cool down and
> check after vacuuming a small number of bees to ensure
> that they are OK before you continue.

There is a flip side to consider.

The cage is sitting inside an enclosed space and when bees are excited they get hot.

In temps above 80 degrees you can lose bees to them becoming overheated unless the vac runs constantly so that air is kept flowing through the cage.