Hollow fence post bee removal (and hello from Zambia)

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Thanks for all the advice. Would love to work with them in the day but I am worried about human conflict. A lot of people use the road through the gate during the day and I don’t want them getting stung while I work.

You must seriously consider, what size of risk you take when you handle the colony in such place.
Is it worth of it.

Even calm bees become mad in darkness.
.
 
So darkness is worse than daytime? I have a friend here who only works with his bees at night. He claims it’s easier. Although I have checked my own hives during the day and never had an issue so I prefer daytime. Didn’t think there was too much difference in aggression though.


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So darkness is worse than daytime? I have a friend here who only works with his bees at night. He claims it’s easier. Although I have checked my own hives during the day and never had an issue so I prefer daytime. Didn’t think there was too much difference in aggression though.


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I think that people are forgetting there is a slight difference between Apis mellifera scutellata and what we have here in Europe. Here, the maintained knowledge is that bees should be manipulated in the morning or midday, evening and nights can be relatively cold so maybe that's why the bees object to being disturbed.
In Africa, I know from experience, midday can be a difficult time as it is too hot for bees to forage thus the hives are ram packed with bees (similar to what our hives in the UK are like at night), late afternoon/evenings are cooler and it is when the bees are busier out foraging thus it is the best time to inspect. Maybe night time temperament is different as well.
 
If you have to work in the evening (still some light?) or at night (dark, with a red light?) - I think you should bear in mind how to catch all the bees and allow flying bees to find their way back to their pipe hive.

If both ends of the pipe are sealed - then that's easy. Just close them in and move the pipe. If not, perhaps do the cutting in the evening/night time; close up the bottom part of the pipe and reduce the entrances they use; then leave the pipe hive there until the next evening when most, or all, of the bees are home in their pipe; close them in; and move them. (But they might have absconded by then ...)
 
if you knew where in the pipe they were you could just drill a hole at the base of the pipe, pump in enough expanding foam to crete a plug then cut it off below the plug at night after blocking the entrance
 
Update

So I went over yesterday afternoon, cut the pipe off and pulled out all the comb. While I was doing that all the bees formed a bunch just above where the pole used to be. I fixed as much brood as I could get into my frames then waited for more bees to land in the bunch (rookie error I should have grabbed it as soon as possible and put it into the hive). Turns out that as I waited and it got darker they decided not to stay there and all flew off into the bush so I was left with a few frames of brood a maybe 20% of the bees in my hive. I’m not too confident that these that are left are going to survive as I am very certain that the queen isn’t in my hive either.

Oh well at least I got the bees out of the post for my friend without killing off the whole hive. Now I think I know better and should be more successful the next time.

Thank you again for all the advice, I agree fully now that bees are less aggressive during the day!


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Turns out that as I waited and it got darker they decided not to stay there and all flew off into the bush

As I said - African bees are far more ready to abscond after being disturbed than European bees
 
As I said - African bees are far more ready to abscond after being disturbed than European bees



It’s weird though because I once opened up a tree in my yard here that was giving us trouble so I pulled all the comb out and burnt the tree down. The bees ended up swarming in a tree nearby and stayed there for 4 days before they left so I was hoping these ones would be similar. I guess not, lol.


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And you didn't leave the new hive filled with their own combs of brood and food on the original spot? And why didn't you try to catch the bees in the bush? Didn't they form a cluster?
 
I did leave the hive in the exact same spot where the pole was but they weren’t interested in going into it.

They flew off far into the bush there was no way of following them let alone catching them once the flew off. Hopefully they find a new spot to form a hive away from anywhere that they bother the people working on the farm.


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Thank you, ZV. This has been a very interesting thread and we've all learned a lot. Apart from the fact that one learns most when things go awry, it's been very thought provoking because your conditions & bees are different; it helps us revisit our assumptions.
 
it helps us revisit our assumptions.

IT went just as I thought.
.
One thing is that when I make an revolution in my hive, it needs 2 hours good weather and sun that bees have time to find their new home. Bees do not see in dim night even if a human can see.
 
Thanks ZV. Next time you'll know to start earlier. Also, when the bees were clustered on the ground - that's when you could have tried to put a box - any box - over the cluster with, preferably, some drawn comb and brood in it, and leaving a small gap for flying bees to join the cluster. They'll move up into the box, and then you could move them at night - or they might have flown off anyway!

It's a pity that it was not possible to catch them after they flew off - but I think they'll be ok. They have their queen!
 
I think they would have flown anyway, nothing to do with the time of day - they're scutellata, they behave differently to European bees, they do not like to be messed around, it's part of their survival instinct. What had been done to them was similar to a natural predator robbing their nest - Pack up and move on is the natural reaction.
 

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