Midwinter colony cutout

[match]

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...

 

[hemo]

Suspect you will loose a lot of bees to the cold and wet but better then a pest controller at least they may have a very slim chance.
I guess it will depend on the access to the colony and whether they can be moved quickly enough but likely the job will take some 10's of minutes or in to hours which will be too much for them, could be 10-20k colony size?
A bee vac might work if you know of any around where some one may lend.

 

[Millet]

..

 

[Wingy]

Without looking it’s a difficult one. One possibility depending on circumstances could be.
If they are in a flue liner that is going to be removed and replaced you could push a piece of foam in from the top and bottom to sandwich the colony in. Carefully remove the flue liner and cut out the section containing the cluster, like a tree log. Take it to your chosen location and stand it up as it was in the chimney, insulate and cover with an upturned barrel for protection. Remove foam from below cluster and leave until spring.

 

[hemo]

A very good point Wingy, if they were in a flue liner then extraction could be very successful.

 

[MartinL]

What, exactly is the urgency?

Renovation come in many guises, what "renovations" are they doing?

Could be that it may be better for all if done in the spring?

. . . if they were in a flue liner then extraction could be very successful.

Depends on how the chimney was lined. If it was a "mickey mouse" job with just a wrinkly stainless liner then maybe? However, "renovation" probably means a brick flue, with the colony possibly beyond reach of the pot at the top? If the chimney has been capped properly then they could be just under the slab at the top entering via an air-brick.

 

[match]

So I went along yesterday (And took another couple of beekeepers from the local association with me) to se what could be done.

The bees were in an old stone chimney flue in an abandoned stable block from the 1820s, which is now being renovated. Unfortunately the colony had to be removed as the stone-mason needed to do work in that area as there was concern about instability and a risk that part of the roof could collapse! The flue ran almost horizontally from the stables to the main house, and appeared to have been blocked off in the 1900s. There had been reports of the bees being there for at least 10 years, though the house is close to a few other known apiaries, so it's entirely possible that these bees were recent arrivals to an established site from local swarms.

It took about 3 hours to get the bees out - they were remarkably calm throughout the whole ordeal (only about 5-10 stings among 4 people, all from accidents rather than bee aggression). They were also pretty hardy, and were working to clear honey out of exposed comb that had been disturbed the day before, with air temps sitting around 6-7C.

We had the stone-mason suited up to remove a couple of stones to get access, then cut out the comb piece by piece - and removed quite a busy colony (15-20k bees was our guess), 2 square inches of uncapped brood (as expected for December) and a mix of empty and honey-filled comb - equal parts papery-white moth-eaten, old and black, and fresh and yellow.

We decanted as many bees into the poly nuc as we could, having filled it with drawn comb frames. Once we'd cut out all the comb we strapped the nuc to the scaffolding we were working on so the entrance pointed into the hole to lure the last few bees in. We weren't sure if we had the Q or not at that point, though 5-10 mins later the noise in the nuc increased in volume and pitch, and after that I was convinced I could hear piping inside, so we're hoping she made it in. Bees started fanning the nuc entrance and the last few stragglers went in, so we closed it up and moved it away.

It was too dark and cold at that point to try to open it up and try the 'old comb held in empty frames with elastic bands' trick, so instead we put some dampened sugar in the top feeder and left them to it.

Meanwhile I've taken the salveagable comb home to process. It's not the cleanest comb or honey, so we'll try to feed some of the honey back to the bees so they can take it down into the new frames, along with a pollen patty to keep them right for the spring. That and maybe turn some into mead!

Here's hoping they make it!

Some pics of the adventure are here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Brm99WVARDw/

 

[Millet]

Brilliant result in a tricky situation..fingers crossed that they make it..well done all involved..

 

[Swarm]

Nice bees, they deserve a chance. Please let us know how they do.

 

[For want of a better word]

and after that I was convinced I could hear piping inside, so we're hoping she made it in.......

Scottish bees ... brilliant!

Nadelik Lowen

 

[match]

and after that I was convinced I could hear piping inside, so we're hoping she made it in.......

Scottish bees ... brilliant!

Nadelik Lowen

You know, I'd honestly never made that connection before!

 

[hemo]

Nice job , well done

 

[Angularity]

and after that I was convinced I could hear piping inside, so we're hoping she made it in.......

Scottish bees ... brilliant!

Nadelik Lowen

They might have been Cornish!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_bagpipes

Excellent work on the bees, by the way.

 

[Wingy]

Well done fingers crossed they make it