Bees in Bird Box........

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Dazzabee

House Bee
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
112
Reaction score
0
Location
Thurrock, Essex
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
11, mix of National & 14x12 + 2 Nuc
Got a call from someone about bees in a Bird Box. I started to say oh they'll be bumbles but the person insisted they were honey bee's as they had checked on the internet and had been watching them for quite some time. It was local to me so I went round and low and behold honey bees in a bird box........:hairpull:

The bird box is 18inches long by 10inches wide at the bottom. AND it is split down the centre with a nest box at each end so the bees are actually only living in one side which surprised me even more!

Turns out they had been living in the bird box for around 18 months and the reason for calling me was that they had swarmed. This was the 2nd swarm issued from the bird box in the last week or so too and they told me the first was much bigger than the 2nd (which makes sense). The swarm was sat on a nearby sleeper so i collected and placed into a poly nuc.

Next they want me to perform a cut out on the Bird box placing the residents into a hive and leaving in situ in their garden. They are offering to pay for the hive but would like me to look after them and supply them with a proportion of the honey produced by that particular hive. The family is also very interested in learning the basics and they already knew quite a bit from researching on the internet. They seemed a really nice family too.

Its a massive garden in a rural village location and the bees have been living there for 18 months anyway so I'm considering it.........
 
There they go again... bees not only NOT reading the bee keeping books, but not reading the forum either. They will have to be banned!
:ban:

On the other hand, it does look like a lovely location and how wonderful to find people willing to allow you have bees on their land. A real find. Good luck with it.
:rolleyes:
 
Nice to have a happy story.... Good luck with the cutout!
E
 
So finally got round to doing the cut out......
You can see the divide down the middle separating the bee occupied section and the old birds nest on the other side.

they were nicely packed inside their half using all the available space and although you cant see it from these pics there were a couple of perfect triangle shaped combs taken out! :)

They were very docile indeed considering I was cutting open their home (literally) and the smoker burned itself out on the floor half way through having only used it once at the entrance before starting. There was also a thunder storm on the horizon which they ignored too.

Found the queen about 3/4 way through and put her in a clip and place to one side for safe keeping.

They are now in a 14 x 12 poly nuc with a gazillion elastic bands supporting 3 frames of brood and 1 with stores. Hopefully they'll do the business cleaning them up and drawing out to fit the frames etc.

Fingers crossed they like their new home with the extension.......
 
Welll there isn't 40 litres in that box and there's not a lot of insulation for winter either !!

Incredible how they manage to survive without us ... and prosper it seems ! Good job done ... they should do well in a hive ~ or they will bugger off at the first opportunity - who knows ?
 
Would you have to feed them if they have one frame of stores? Or have they got enough for the size of colony? Forgive me if this is a daft question, but hey, that's what I'm here for ;)
 
well done. a possible new site too. not criticising but just a note to be careful if placing stores from a cutout into a frame that there isn't a lot of honey running that might encourage robbing especially of a weakened hive! i like the pictures thanks for sharing.
 
Would you have to feed them if they have one frame of stores? Or have they got enough for the size of colony? Forgive me if this is a daft question, but hey, that's what I'm here for ;)

Hi kazmcc,

Welcome back by the way :)

Each of the brood frames also has a good amount of stores in a triangular arc at the top too so I figured as they still have most of what they started with that they'll be ok for now. I'll check in a week or so to see how they're getting on as they'll use up some stores making the extra wax needed to fill the frames. If stores get low obviously I'll add some feed. But let's see how they go first.
 
well done. a possible new site too. not criticising but just a note to be careful if placing stores from a cutout into a frame that there isn't a lot of honey running that might encourage robbing especially of a weakened hive! i like the pictures thanks for sharing.

Hi dn,

I managed to get most of the comb into the frames intact cutting just where they attached to the roof of the bird box. As a result only a little of the stores were disturbed. It was mainly just where my fingers held it to support whilst adding the elastic bands. Also the entrance they now have to defend is actually smaller than they had previously so hopefully that helps too! Lol
 
Welll there isn't 40 litres in that box and there's not a lot of insulation for winter either !!

Incredible how they manage to survive without us ... and prosper it seems ! Good job done ... they should do well in a hive ~ or they will bugger off at the first opportunity - who knows ?

Nope definitely not 40 L!!
The roof side I removed literally crumbled in my hand too. On the underside was propolis city where they had plugged so many cracks and holes! I think it was the wax and propolis that was holding that side of the roof together! Lol

Fingers crossed they stay put.....
 
Bees take the best nest site available ... must not have been a good day to move house with all larger sites taken or just not available, if they ended up there.
 

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