[EastSideBuzz]

Got a swarm call today. Well got 4 of them. But, this was the last one of the evening. Guy called me this afternoon and said that he had talked with another swarm guy that would not come out because he had yellow jackets and not honey bee's. He was so thankful that I was willing to come out. Well when I got there at 9 he showed me the hole they went in.

Then he took us into his basement to see the rest of the hive. Apparently 5 years ago he saw a cartoon like swarm fly by into the hole. He said it was just like watching a cartoon. Don't quite understand why he did not contact someone 5 years ago but, that is good for me. He said they came shooting out the hole and hit him in the year after year while he was cutting the lawn. He did not mind they never stung him. Odd gentleman.

I left it at his house. All my Bee vacuum boxes were full from the other swarms. So we are going back tomorrow. I am going to put a tube covering the hole on the outside to catch the ones that deciede to run. Then we will vac up and remove the inside ones layer by layer and put the comb with brood in them into frames and a deep. I figure this will be a 2-3 deep project. Will probably get a bit of honey also.

 

[Mike S]

Now thats an impressive hive, good luck taking them down. Great pics also, take pleanty of pics and post ........ Thanks

 

[G3farms]

best bunch of yellow jackets I have ever seen .

That will be a dandy cut out for sure.

G3

 

[beekeeper1756]

Oh, I am so envious and happy for you all at the same time. You are going to have a ball getting that hive into boxes.

Please, do take lots of pictures and post your experiences for us to live through.

:applause::applause::applause:

 

[MrJeff]

Good lord, what a monster. Congratulations.

 

[Batman]

Congrats and at least it will be somewhat easy for ya to get them. I have an extraction that has been postponed. It's kinda of similar to yours in the way that they showed up about 5 years ago the people have not done anything about it. its partially outside under the roof, and then the rest is inside the roof. It's a flat top roof and he wants the bees gone, so we will be cutting into it when he feels better. So far I have heard that it has swarmed 2x this year so far.

Craig

 

[Sam-Smith]

Nice looking colony, should be fairly easy since all the comb is completely exposed I love cut-outs like this.

 

[Reid]

Eastsidebuzz,
Nice looking colony! Where was that one?
Yesterday was indeed a very swarmy day for us! With your 4 swarm calls, Jim Olsen's 3, and my 3, that makes 10 just for the three of us on the same day in the same area. We should tally up what other beeks in our area got yesterday.
One of mine was only 5 minutes from my place in North Seattle and I'm headed down to SeaTac to open up a garage wall where two swarms entered the same wall (10 ft apart) yesterday within an hour of each other. While talking with the owner the second smaller swarm arrived.

I was on the phone with the owner talking about the first swarm when the second one arrived. She said it was smaller. By smaller she said "oh, only the size of a basketball". "Only" I said, "that's a nice one. How big was the first one". She replied "well, the first one was at least two, maybe three times that large and covered a 9 ft by ft area around the hole in the siding to the point you could see the wall".

To top it off, the are both about 20 ft up. I couldn't sleep past 6:00 am this morning just thinking about how big this swarm is going to be.
Fun, fun, fun!

I'll take a mess of pictures to post.

~Reid

 

[StevenG]

Amazing... I'm jealous of both of you - Reid and Eastsidebuzz.

 

[Throttlebender]

Out oif curiosity, what are you all charging for removals?

 

[EastSideBuzz]

Out of curiosity, what are you all charging for removals?

I did not plan to charge anything. But, the guy insisted on giving us some money. He gave us a Benjamin. I will give it to my son that worked with me as my helper all day. Do others charge for this.? I think if I need to cut wood and siding Sheetrock and stuff there should be a charge. This was just such a cool hive I was glad to do it.

Took 6 hours to cut out this monster hive. Filled 4 deeps with comb 8 frames each with stuff cut out. Got 3 gallons or so of honey. I think there were 3-4 packages worth of Bee's that I vacuumed up safety and transplanted into my apiary. I think we are up to 33 now. This week should add a few more swarms.

So we were running late and did not get to the hive before they went out for the day. They shot out like rockets out the hole. Got hit a few times in the head. They are pretty nice bee's.

So we put a box with a tube to catch the bee's as they left. This was a bad plan.

 

[EastSideBuzz]

Found several queen cells so this might have been getting ready to swarm. Never found the queen. Hope she survives.

Cut layer by layer of comb and vacuumed up the bee's on each layer.

Vacuumed up over a dozen pounds of bee's. These bee's were very gentle. Did not get stung one time. They did not even get mad that I was pealing there hive away and vacuuming up there sisters. Nicest hive I have ever seen. I hope that the queen lives. If she does not I am going to let them make a new queen with the brood that I saved so it is this hives genetics.

 

[EastSideBuzz]

Pretty much done sticky mess on the ceiling still. Owner is going to clean that part up.

So as the sun set all the girls were vacuumed up. We put the vacuum spout below the hole and one by one they got sucked down the tube. LEft the vac running for 30 minutes or so as we cleaned up and put everything back in the truck.

We left and went home put the last box of bee's into an existing small hive I had as a newspaper combine. It was easily 2 pounds of bee that I added so that hive will get a jump start.

 

[honeybeekeeper]

Originally Posted by Throttlebender
Out of curiosity, what are you all charging for removals?

I remove the bees for free!! Why charge people? Gezzzz :scratch:

Nice pictures, i say that was a job and a half! Awesome!!!!
and im glad you wanted to do it for free! Everyone anymore
wants to look at dollar signs anymore while alot of us try to
help the population! I really liked the vacuum hose set up
thats priceless right there!!..hahaha GREAT JOB!!!

 

[EastSideBuzz]

Originally Posted by Throttlebender
Out of curiosity, what are you all charging for removals?

I remove the bees for free!! Why charge people? Gezzzz :scratch:

Nice pictures, i say that was a job and a half! Awesome!!!!
and im glad you wanted to do it for free! Everyone anymore
wants to look at dollar signs anymore while alot of us try to
help the population! I really liked the vacuum hose set up
thats priceless right there!!..hahaha GREAT JOB!!!

Thanks. It was fun worth spending the day doing it. They did not sting at all. They were so mild.

At 6 I got up and built a new bottom with more room to capture this hive. Built a box 10 inches tall. Put a slant in the bottom with some outdoor carpet to soften the landing. Put some foam padding on the opposite end of the box. I put a full deep on top of that with 6 frames in on the sides so there is still room in the middle. I use a 2 inch hose. I have found that an 1 1/2 corrugated pipe kills to many bee's. The 2 inch stuff kills some but, not to many. It is the sticky stuff on the walls that probably sticks to them and rip's off the wings.

It was funny to watch them fly to the hole and get sucked into the hose. I think we got almost every one of the bee's.

 

[G3farms]

That was an awesome cut out. I am glad you got to spend time with your son doing it, good times for him to talk about for years to come.

So how many splits are you going to make out of all of this??

G3

 

[concrete-bees]

i also remove honeybees for free

but if they tell me that they are honeybees and i get there and they are bumblebees -- i charge $50 --

if they are wasp or hornets i charge $150-200

i see this as far as any exterminator price is 250-400 just to show up it seem

and so far in the 10 years of removing bees i have yet to have someone grip at the cost i put on my time and expericance

but charge what you think is fair



back on topic --- Very nice colony - but remember its a swarm until there is comb then its a colony

were abouts did you find this one????

i have had 5 Swarm calls to sedro this month and all are in the same city block -- different houses but all are a dark honeybee swarm - but cant locate the parent hive that is casting all the swarms -- im thinking its got to be a colony like yours ...... in a basement or somewhere ....

 

[EastSideBuzz]

So technically this was a hive not a swarm my title is not exactly correct. It was a swarm when it moved in 5 years ago. Then became an established swarm making it a hive. But, lets not hijack the thread for a swarm definition.

I found it on Military and 124th way in Burien. Reid was telling me that he found 2 swarms yesterday in the same garage around Seatac. We are not sure weather this is the hive that was throwing off swarms.

As for the charging piece which is not threats topic. We did a bumble Bee call the other day and since we removed it I asked for lunch money. He gave us 40 bucks so not too bad.

 

[BGhoney]

I got 3 calls yesterday. One swarm was about the biggest I've ever seen. Out in the county, next to rasberry fields, several pallets of bees. I just scooped 2 , 5 gallon buckets out of the apple tree, then sucked up the rest.

Came to 13lbs of bees in 3 buckets.

If they came from the pollinator its hard to believe they were that strong.

 

[oldenglish]

I got the two calls last wednesday which was nice, but so far not a single call this weekend.