Someone beat you to it.
Posted on 06/18/2009 10:38:34 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Freepers:
As usual, I try to find "experts" on certain issues here before I go searching for the "googled" or "wiki" answers.
I have a large hive of honey bees (non-african) in my wall of my house. I have tolerated them for a wile (they have been there for four-five years), but this year they are much, much more numerous and I fear that the mold/mildew inside of my siding will be detrimental in the long run.
I want to safely remove them without destroying the hive and transplant them to a bee box.
Beekeeping has been one of my "learn how to do" hobbies and I think this is a great opportunity.
Do any of you have any experience, techniques, or known methods to safely remove a hive from within an exterior wall, and then transplant them to a bee-box?
Thanks for your input!
I used to raise bees. I bet you will like doing it. I would look it up a search eng. You will end up with many hives as time goes by.
This is because bees in a forest fire need to eat up, calm down, and then get ready to move the hive.
So if YOU want to move the hive, smoke is a good first step towards getting them all well fed, calm, and amenable to the idea of the hive moving.
Look for a local honey maker, they will know all the bee keepers and they will be able to help you.
Call a professional bee keeper they will willingly take the hive.....If you don’t know of a bee keeper call your local extension office of the state agriculture school and they can help you find one.
Someone beat you to it.
The bees return to the nest at night and are more docile. Don’t do anything during the day.
Your only hope is to tear the siding off the outside wall and remove the hive. If you are determined to keep the bees, keep them sedated with corn cob smoke. (oiled with corn oil) Carefully remove the siding, honey combs, larvae and all contamination they surely have filled your wall with for this long a time.
As far as keeping them for later use, why not just start your own hive from a producer, from scratch? Forget this mess. It will be very difficult to keep them around after you destroy their hive. It would be much easier to kill them and fix the damage they have done to your house.
Seriously, ask a beekeeper. Possibly he’d be interesting in taking the hive and moving it.
Also, that depends if they are really honey bees, or if they are yellow jackets or something else.
If they are yellow jackets, best to exterminate them, IMHO. I’ve done that with hornets living in the barn wall. You get one of those spray cans that will shoot the poison from 15 or 20 feet away, wait until the hive is quiet, and give them the business. Then wait a day until they’ve all returned to the hive and died before cleaning it out.
People here just drone on and on...
Ummm..., first on that list, I would put, “check house insurance, and make sure it’s in effect...” LOL...
He made a check for bees, since they are often present in abandoned cars. He said that he didn't see any, but that they might still be present. He started to bend down to attach a chain and said, "If there are bees here, I'm likely know in a minute."
I said, "What will you do then?"
He said, "I'll probably scream like a little girl and start running."
***”Tresspassers will be shot, survivors shot again posted”***
Hope you never have to defend yourself on your property. A DA might decide to use it as evidence of your murderous intent.
I have seen stories about doing this very thing on TV. Typically, bee keepers will carefully pry the wall open to get to the bees, then they use smoke to disorient and calm the bees while they move them to the boxes.
From everything I have seen about moving large bee hives, you’re better of to contact a commercial beekeeper in your area to move the hives for you. I’m sure that they wouldn’t mind you assisting if you want to learn the right way to do it.
You said — Beekeeping has been one of my “learn how to do” hobbies and I think this is a great opportunity.
—
Wellllll...., I wouldn’t put that bee-keeping-job down as my “first to learn” in my hobby... LOL...
You need to call a professional bee keeper who is experienced in removals. Also if you live in certain states such as Florida or Texas no kill probably is not possible because of the africanized honey bees.
I had somebody come to my house to take away a hive for me. He did it for free, because he got the bees.
It might be cheaper for you to have somebody take these bees and then establish a new hive. Provided you don’t have a personal attachment ot these particular bees...
Also, it seems like an existing hive might be more likely to move back into your wall, and they you would be right back where you started.
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