so heres the story!!

[chrismcd]

You can collect them now - but be very careful!

We seem to have a lot of bees round here that like to nest high up in ancient walls!

As has been pointed out the problem is to catch the queen. Under normal circumstances, all the disturbance of breaking into the hive means that she will have vanished down some crevice. In which case you are left with gathering the workers and requeening.

What you could consider is doing it about now - on a cold, windless day. You have a much better chance of getting to the cluster before the bees wake up enough to realise what is going on and you can then transfer them to a standard hive with a queen excluder across the entrance.

I have just rescued a colony from a blown over tree and am cautiously optimistic that I have the queen (the bees seem very calm and are foraging for pollen after only being in their new home for a few days).

BUT - as has been pointed out - it is very easy to cut out the comb with a big knife and place it carefully in a new hive. The real problem is getting to the cluster when it is high up and behind brickwork. This needs scaffolding and some expert work breaking into the hive space without loosing the bees or doing yourself a mischief.

Judging by the colony I dealt with, they will be very reluctant to abscond at this time of year. So you could; put up scafolding, make an entrance into the hive space and then leave the cluster to settle down. Then sometime later, do the quick removal act with your long knife, put the cluster and the queen into the hive (with QX fitted) and let the rest of the bees come down to join her later on - maybe encouraging them with some smoke.

I would just add that the one I did was easy - the tree had blown over and I could reach up to the cluster in the exposed cavity. The BBKA's insurance hassle about collecting swarms above three metres is presumably because there have been some horror stories I do not know about?! And who pays for the greenhouse if you fall through it?

 

[BBG]

Scaffolding's for wimps!

Poke a long ladder through the glass and get uop there with a bucket on some rope and a pointing/roofing hammer.

The pheromone smell of someone who's having a go unperturbed by H&S will calm the bees.

PS
There could be one or two problems with this method but it has been succesful in the past albeit who pays for the glass replacement is always contentious.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Poke a long ladder through the glass and get uop there with a bucket on some rope and a pointing/roofing hammer.

you forget that the ladder must be in at least three sections tied together with scrappy old bits of baler twine or old stockings with no more than a ten inch overlap between sections (also ladder should preferably be old, weathered hickory)

 

[AnotherNewBee]

Ladder? What ladder?

Just stand on the greenhouse woodwork. The fear of falling through the glass will be enough to make sure you're careful.

Once the job's done it'll be something to talk about down the pub.