Bee removal

Kurt Bower · Post by **Kurt Bower** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 4:53 am

Wow! Yesterday evening I removed a colony of bees from between some plywood and the plate glass of a storefront. Things actually went better than planned and I was able to complete the job in about an hour.
Believe it or not I found the queen before ever starting to remove the bees. She was just on top of one of the combs, so I caged her for introduction later.
I used my bee vac and things went smoothly. I dont seem to have any agressive behavior when vacuuming them from the comb.
When I introduced them to their new home they readily accepted it. Of course their queen was waiting on them so what's not to like?
Best guess is that I gathered around 20,000 bees. Now if I can just get them to over winter!
What Fun!!!

Ron · Post by **Ron** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 7:40 pm

How much will you have to feed them this time of the year to get them through the winter. Did you use comb that was drawn out our new foundation?

Kurt Bower · Post by **Kurt Bower** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:56 am

In the past I have tried to salvage the existing comb. It is difficult and depending on the width of the comb it may or may not be worthwhile. (If it is wide enough to fit the frame it can be cut to shape and secured by rubber bands)
I dont even bother any more. I just give them a little drawm comb. I try to give them at least one medium super so the queen can start laying immediately. I almost always have a little comb lying around. I guess its one of the advntages of having several hives.
I did feed them back their own honey and a little bit that I had saved for just such a purpose. I will ultimately feed them enough sugar syrup to get them up to about 40 lbs which should be sufficient for the winter.

Kurt