match
House Bee
- Joined
- May 20, 2009
- Messages
- 124
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- SE Scotland
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6-8
Just had contact from someone who is doing renovation work and has found an established colony in an old chimney flue, and needs them removed ASAP (have seen some picks, and it's definitely honey bees on wild comb).
I've asked for more info as to size, accessibility etc, but although I've done lots of swarm collection and the odd cutout, I've never had to do one in the middle of winter, so I'm wondering what my best approach would be if I tackle this one.
I'm guessing that there's not likely to be much/any brood just now, and most of the comb will be capped stores (assuming they're not tiny and liable to die out through the winter). I also expect that there will not be a ton of bees - hopefully a small cluster, rather than a full hive's worth.
I don't have any spare frames with capped stores, but I have plenty of fondant. My plan is to take a Maisemore 6-frame poly, fill it with drawn comb, get all the bees into it, then add the feeder and stow it out with fondant, and keep topping that up as the winter progresses. I'll take some empty frames, elastic bands etc and see if there's sturdy enough comb to make up frames from, but I have my suspicions that heavy comb laden with stores is just going to turn into a sticky mess if I try to do anything fancy with it (though if there's enough there's the option to squeeze it out the wild comb, then feed it back to them in the feed tray instead of fondant).
Any thoughts? Should I give it a go, or just leave this one to pest control? I expect I'll not be able to resist going to have a gander either way...
I've asked for more info as to size, accessibility etc, but although I've done lots of swarm collection and the odd cutout, I've never had to do one in the middle of winter, so I'm wondering what my best approach would be if I tackle this one.
I'm guessing that there's not likely to be much/any brood just now, and most of the comb will be capped stores (assuming they're not tiny and liable to die out through the winter). I also expect that there will not be a ton of bees - hopefully a small cluster, rather than a full hive's worth.
I don't have any spare frames with capped stores, but I have plenty of fondant. My plan is to take a Maisemore 6-frame poly, fill it with drawn comb, get all the bees into it, then add the feeder and stow it out with fondant, and keep topping that up as the winter progresses. I'll take some empty frames, elastic bands etc and see if there's sturdy enough comb to make up frames from, but I have my suspicions that heavy comb laden with stores is just going to turn into a sticky mess if I try to do anything fancy with it (though if there's enough there's the option to squeeze it out the wild comb, then feed it back to them in the feed tray instead of fondant).
Any thoughts? Should I give it a go, or just leave this one to pest control? I expect I'll not be able to resist going to have a gander either way...