the naked beekeeper
Field Bee
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2008
- Messages
- 739
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- S.E. Cornwall
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- Enough
Had a call to a swarm yesterday, which had arrived and set home inside a farm building.
Great I thought.
Out of duty I turned up and usually expect to see bees entering through many holes, in an inaccessible place, deep in someone's residence, impossible to remove except by dismantling and too dangerous for access and for safety to try and smoke them out.
Anyway, on this occasion, I saw the bees were entering into a granite wall through a single cavity.
The farmer explained that where they were was a sealed up window.
So I guess they were in the void left inbetween the two walls.
Behind the wall was the loft of the dairy farm, where they kept their feed. There was a fixed ladder going up there for access and it looked like the bees could crawl through the cracks of the outer wall into this room.
What's more, the bees residence was largely granite, so no risk of setting the place alight and no one was really around to get stung.
Having assessed it all, I thought I'd give it a go the next day on the basis that they would be more likely to leave, having only been in a day as they'd not have much comb and most probably not any brood of note if at all.
So I set up a hive the other side of the wall, resting in the loft of the dairy shed and set about smoking the hole.
Sure enough bees poured out.
Not a nice job at all to be doing, but I consoled myself that the distress they'd experience is better than being killed off by the farmer and that I'd try my best to molly-coddle them through winter.
After some 30 mins, no more bees were coming out, so I blocked up the hole with some scrunched up tissue and left it like that till sundown.
I called the farmer to let him know that I'd be back and not to be alarmed at seeing bees flying everywhere. I explained that they would be very confused and somewhat distressed and would clump up somewhere and hopefully I could then hive them.
I could see they were crawling through the cracks of the wall and a few were going into the hive. So I smoked the whole outside facia, to make them go into the cracks of the wall and into the loft.
So I returned at sundown, hoping for the best (they would be in the hive) but fearing the worst (they'd be clumped somewhere else inaccessible) and found 99% of them in the hive!
I've attached a few pics.
I would have had more except my memory card ran out after my daughter assured me it was empty!!
Great I thought.
Out of duty I turned up and usually expect to see bees entering through many holes, in an inaccessible place, deep in someone's residence, impossible to remove except by dismantling and too dangerous for access and for safety to try and smoke them out.
Anyway, on this occasion, I saw the bees were entering into a granite wall through a single cavity.
The farmer explained that where they were was a sealed up window.
So I guess they were in the void left inbetween the two walls.
Behind the wall was the loft of the dairy farm, where they kept their feed. There was a fixed ladder going up there for access and it looked like the bees could crawl through the cracks of the outer wall into this room.
What's more, the bees residence was largely granite, so no risk of setting the place alight and no one was really around to get stung.
Having assessed it all, I thought I'd give it a go the next day on the basis that they would be more likely to leave, having only been in a day as they'd not have much comb and most probably not any brood of note if at all.
So I set up a hive the other side of the wall, resting in the loft of the dairy shed and set about smoking the hole.
Sure enough bees poured out.
Not a nice job at all to be doing, but I consoled myself that the distress they'd experience is better than being killed off by the farmer and that I'd try my best to molly-coddle them through winter.
After some 30 mins, no more bees were coming out, so I blocked up the hole with some scrunched up tissue and left it like that till sundown.
I called the farmer to let him know that I'd be back and not to be alarmed at seeing bees flying everywhere. I explained that they would be very confused and somewhat distressed and would clump up somewhere and hopefully I could then hive them.
I could see they were crawling through the cracks of the wall and a few were going into the hive. So I smoked the whole outside facia, to make them go into the cracks of the wall and into the loft.
So I returned at sundown, hoping for the best (they would be in the hive) but fearing the worst (they'd be clumped somewhere else inaccessible) and found 99% of them in the hive!
I've attached a few pics.
I would have had more except my memory card ran out after my daughter assured me it was empty!!
