Cut-out, Trap-out, Trap-in or worse...

[richardbees]

Roche

You get the gold medal for that! and thanks for the excellent photos

richard

 

[BeeJayBee]

Brilliant! And thanks for sharing what you did.

 

[margob99]

Really interesting story and pics, thank you. Considering the colony had apparently only arrived recently, those combs looked old and well-established!

 

[alanf]

A job well done, and great pics. Would you mind if they were used by others for talks and such like?

Considering the colony had apparently only arrived recently, those combs looked old and well-established!

The original scenario said the cavity had been occupied over about 10 years. Maybe died out and re-occupied several times. Probably why the householder was willing to get the builders in.

 

[roche]

Alanf, I am pretty sure you are right - this cavity shows signs of having been in intermittent occupation for a long time. There wasn't much to keep heat in, and not really a huge amount of space for stores, so I suspect overwinter dying out...

You can go ahead and use the write up and pics - I think the text explaining the pros and cons of how to deal with them is quite useful - I adapted it from a piece published by an American association.

Thanks everyone for your kind words.