Recently arrived swarm in chimney

[Levitt53]

Hi, I have been asked to help with a swarm that arrived in a chimney on Sunday. I've put a nuc with one old frame on top of the shed in the garden and the landlady has lit a fire which I have advised her to keep fairly low but nice and smokey. I'm hoping that as they haven't been there very long they should move out fairly readily. I've had to go to work now but is there anything else I could suggest?

 

[Finman]

You may put a bee box on the chimney. Put a brood frame into box. Bees may rise to cover brood. If they do not have yet own brood down there.

It takes 2-3 days before the queen starts to lay.

You may put down a piece of brood and perhaps the queen goes onto the brood frame when you fish bees up gradually.

 

[Levitt53]

You may put a bee box on the chimney. Put a brood frame into box. Bees may rise to cover brood. If they do not have yet own brood down there.

It takes 2-3 days before the queen starts to lay.

You may put down a piece of brood and perhaps the queen goes onto the brood frame when you fish bees up gradually.

I'm not going up ladders or anything to be honest. I was just trying to help and grab some free bees.

 

[Finman]

I'm not going up ladders or anything to be honest. I was just trying to help and grab some free bees.

Lets pray together, however.

 

[birdsandbees]

well, I've just tried something similar, bees in Chimney with no access to it, Nuc on the shed and smoked the blighters, the old lady who's house it is told me that although I had a small cluster on the Nuc yesterday evening they had all gone again so I had given up, called in again this afternoon to collect the 'empty' Nuc only to find it pretty busy with bees in and out, a cluster on the front and a couple of hundred bees on the shed roof next to it!
when I said to her 'I thought you said it was empty' she said that when she looked out first thing this morning she didn't see any bees apart from a couple on the entrance, but they were piling into it last night at dusk!
so now have to go back for a fourth time! fingers crossed I have them but I've spent three hours there, and driven around fifty miles back and forth, I wonder whether it was worth it!

 

[Finman]

.
I have tried few chimney colonies, but they are very difficult.

 

[enrico]

You have to start smoking the chimney really early after arrival. Leave it a couple of days and there will already be wax in the chimney, enough to start a good chimney fire when the fire is used properly, so if you do smoke them out then get her to clean the chimney before proper use!!!!!!!
E

 

[beeno]

I have done it once on a swarm that arrived a couple of hours earlier. They moved to a garage roof which was much more convenient!

 

[Levitt53]

She’s given up today. She only asked for help today on our village FB site so yes it’s a bit late. She’s going to try again tomorrow. Hopefully they might have found the nuc in the meantime and work out that that will be better than where they are. Fortunately it’s just round the corner from me. Assuming we can’t coax them out I am assuming pest control is her only option?

 

[beeno]

Fingers X for tomorrow.

 

[tchu]

She’s given up today. She only asked for help today on our village FB site so yes it’s a bit late. She’s going to try again tomorrow. Hopefully they might have found the nuc in the meantime and work out that that will be better than where they are. Fortunately it’s just round the corner from me. Assuming we can’t coax them out I am assuming pest control is her only option?

Would you kindly let me know the outcome? Have a beekeeper friend who had a call about a similar issue. Thanks

 

[Gilberdyke John]

You have to start smoking the chimney really early after arrival. Leave it a couple of days and there will already be wax in the chimney, enough to start a good chimney fire when the fire is used properly, so if you do smoke them out then get her to clean the chimney before proper use!!!!!!!
E

That comment takes me back to childhood when setting fire to the chimney was a common method of clearing soot in our village street. Passing along the street was like driving through the wake of a battleship laying down a smokescreen.

 

[enrico]

I can still vividly remember the smell of coal smoke in the thick fog!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I can still vividly remember the smell of coal smoke in the thick fog!

not around here, we are in the middle of the South West Wales coalfield. Hard coal won out of the ground by hard men - none of that soft,tarry smoky stuff.

 

[enrico]

not around here, we are in the middle of the South West Wales coalfield. Hard coal won out of the ground by hard men - none of that soft,tarry smoky stuff.

yep, you sold the crap stuff to my parents!

 

[Swarm]

I remember all the loads of coal piled outside each house. Home from school then get the buckets out to get the coal in.

 

[sean-a]

That comment takes me back to childhood when setting fire to the chimney was a common method of clearing soot in our village street. Passing along the street was like driving through the wake of a battleship laying down a smokescreen.

Yes! Smoke, sparks and flames shooting out of the chimney and slabs of glowing soot falliing into the hearth....
The whole area smothered in thick white smoke....
Any bees would be well advised to move on

 

[Pembroke]

I saw an article recently about chimney sweeps perfecting methods of getting bees out of chimneys. Bees In Chimneys - Find a Chimney Sweep perhaps there's someone in your area who can do it?

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Yes! Smoke, sparks and flames shooting out of the chimney and slabs of glowing soot falliing into the hearth....
The whole area smothered in thick white smoke....
Any bees would be well advised to move on

And the roaring sound as the hot air, flames and smoke rocketed up the chimney