A cutout.
Firstly a little back ground history.
Last year a local beekeeper was made aware of bees that were seen entering and exiting a wall in one of our local council buildings. The entrance was just below the guttering on the 3rd floor and we now know that the bees had been had found a gap between the stone wall and where the roof joined. Access from the outside would have been difficult and they weren’t sure where their were nest was.
Two local pest controllers had been contacted but their policy’s were that they did not remove honey bees, so that’s why he had been contacted. He informed the council that it was likely a swarm had taken up residence and that there was a good chance that the bees would die out over the winter.
Nope!!!
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago when I was contacted to say that the bees were still there and they knew where they were. I said to Derek who was dealing with the issue to contact the pest controllers again. So he did and they weren’t interested so beekeepers were their last resort. Years ago the council had their own staff who dealt with pests including wasps when necessary but not any more due to cutbacks. I contacted John who is now our association chairman and we decided that we would attempt the cutout this evening when the bees were all in.
So at half past 5 we met up with Derek who is also a joiner and was going to do the cutting for us. He knew nothing about bees so we gave him a veil and gloves and said if we run don’t just stand there wondering what’s happening! So we entered the office with a nuc with empty frames, buckets and a hoover which John had made bee friendly by lining the drum with soft foam.
Derek had an app on his phone which could pick up heat and he was able to pinpoint the nest which was on a sloping wall about head height and he was spot on. So the cutting began and John used the hoover to suck out the loose bees as we progressed and it wasn’t long before we came across the comb, lots of comb, which was far more than we were expecting.
We came across the store comb first which was put into buckets and then we moved on to the brood which was on 4 seems. It was cutout and attached to the empty deep frames with elastic bands and put into the nuc with some of the bees still attached. Then it was on to removing the rest of the store combs.
Judging by the amount of comb it’s possible the bees might have been there for a couple of years. Seems far too much to have been built by a mid summer swarm.
The bees were like pussy cats and showed no aggression despite getting their home ripped apart. The cutting of the wall went well but removing the store comb was Bloody Messy with bees falling onto me and honey dripping all over me and everything else while John kept the hoover going. After about an hour and 40 minutes the job was done and more than 95% the bees had been removed. We left Derek with a can of fly spray to deal the few that were left behind. We didn’t see the queen and the chances are that she ended up in the hoover.
The nuc was moved to John’s apiary then we put an extra box on top and the wriggling sticky mass of bees (unfortunately some honey ended up in the hoover) were poured from the hoover onto the top of the frames. The nuc was closed up and John will sort it out tomorrow. The chances are that the queen might have died along with a lot bees. But there is still 5 frames with brood and a substantial number of bees that have been saved and will be united if necessary.
This was my first cutout in over 40 years of beekeeping and the bees were due to bee destroyed one way or another if we hadn’t helped out. We achieved our aim in removing everything and time will tell if colony goes on to thrive or ends up united. Three things I wasn’t expecting were, the amount of comb, how docile the bees were and the Bloody Mess!
I will update.
Start, uncovering, exposed, store comb, brood, messy, John, finished.
