dudley
House Bee
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2009
- Messages
- 154
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Kent uk
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 2 apiary's 1 with 3 hives 2nd with 5 hives
Can you help? I am into my second year of beekeeping and have become quite confident and proficient at taking swarms. When I ask the experienced beekeepers at my club if they ever take established colonies from within dwellings, the answer is always a big no. Usually followed with, “tried it, never works”
However being in the building trade I have no problem pulling a house apart so I have been having a go.
My first attempt last year, a swarm in a chimney failed. Bees so inaccessible, well established, too messy, and too many bee loses.
But at the end of the summer I looked at a colony residing in the timber stud space between the internal plaster and the outer wooden cladding. It was too late to extract them and the householder was happy to leave them alone if I promised to return in the spring.
So in April I returned and managed to successfully cut out lots of comb, complete with brood and painstakingly tied the comb into new empty national frames.
It has worked really well, the colony has thrived, plenty of young bees, brood, and externally all looking normal.
The only problem is they have cross combed over several frames, so I cannot remove those 3 frames for inspection.
I have placed a super onto the brood box to encourage the queen to move out into the super.
Is there more I can do? Should I somehow adapt clearer board and empty the brood box completely including the Queen? Will the brood die if I do this? Etc etc.
Thank you.
However being in the building trade I have no problem pulling a house apart so I have been having a go.
My first attempt last year, a swarm in a chimney failed. Bees so inaccessible, well established, too messy, and too many bee loses.
But at the end of the summer I looked at a colony residing in the timber stud space between the internal plaster and the outer wooden cladding. It was too late to extract them and the householder was happy to leave them alone if I promised to return in the spring.
So in April I returned and managed to successfully cut out lots of comb, complete with brood and painstakingly tied the comb into new empty national frames.
It has worked really well, the colony has thrived, plenty of young bees, brood, and externally all looking normal.
The only problem is they have cross combed over several frames, so I cannot remove those 3 frames for inspection.
I have placed a super onto the brood box to encourage the queen to move out into the super.
Is there more I can do? Should I somehow adapt clearer board and empty the brood box completely including the Queen? Will the brood die if I do this? Etc etc.
Thank you.