Honey Bees In A House

[donwal]

Received a call a call from my step-daughter today asking me to stop by an in-law's house to check on some honey bees. They are located in the house. The house is an OLDER house and has white shingled siding. They are going in between the siding and wall from underneath the siding. I think the siding could be taken off one shingle at a time to expose the bees, but the home owner does not want it taken off. I'm trying to keep him from spraying the hive. He has agreed to let me try and smoke them out or trap out. I know neither is a good option. I do not think a trap out will work due to there being too many openings for the bees to come and go. Will post video and pic as soon as I can get them from my phone.

The owner said that the the bees were first observed four years ago and did not see any bees last year. Also, I don't recall seeing pollen on the bees going in and out, so could it be robbers. I will stop by again tomorrow to observe them more closely.

The only way I see this may be possible, is to set-up an empty hive with brood comb, lemon grass oil beside the house and try smoking them out. Any other ideas? Any one wanting to try and help with this project? Home is located on highway 66 between High Point and Kernersville. He IS going to spray them if they are not rescued.

If you are wondering, yes, I did explain that it was a BAD idea to leave the comb in the house. That the best way to do the job is to take the siding off, but he does not want to spend any money on getting them out.

[ski]

Since removing shingles from the outside is not an option, I guess a cutout from inside the house is also not allowed?

[donwal]

Correct, heading over there in again to see how they are coming and going this morning.

Since I do not do carpentry work, someone other than myself would have to tackle the job of cutting away walls.

[donwal]

Here is a video, quality is not too good. I'm still trying to decide if it is an active hive or robbers.

I did not see any of them bringing in pollen.

https://youtu.be/rF8GQ1kIa7s

[Wally]

Tell him to save his money for now and spray them. Then when the SHB destroy the wax and the rotten, fermented honey destroys the inside walls and the mold sets in, he will have that saved money to help with the possible thousands it will cost to repair the inner walls and kill the mold.

Then I can help you with a trapout if you want to do it. The first step would be to silicone all along the bottom other then a 2 inch entrance.

[Jacobs]

The strong wind may be changing the way those bees are flying, but they don't look like bees that are entering their own established hive. They look a lot like the scout bees that checked out my swarm trap before moving in. Have you or he checked on the inside of the house to see if you can hear the ongoing background buzz of an established colony? In the past, I have been able to stop a swarm moving into a house in Greensboro by spraying some Fischer's at the entrance point while the scouts were there, but before the decision to have the swarm move in.

[donwal]

Thanks Wally, I will let you know how it goes.

Rob, my thoughts exactly, since I did not see any pollen coming in. I have not been inside of the house. My plan for today was to go ahead and set up a box where they are coming in and out, with some old brood comb and lemon grass oil, and a brood frame. Then smoking and spray bee repellent up under the siding where they are coming in and out. Will see how that works and keep talking to the home owner to try and convince him to have the old comb/honey removed.

[donwal]

On another note...weather permitting I do have a cutout scheduled for next Saturday. Homeowner does want to expose the hive and take out all of the comb and bees. I am going by later to take pictures of exactly where they are and make "game" plan. If anyone is interested in joining me when we do the cutout, just let me know.

Checked this one out this afternoon. Passing on this one, hive is located on second floor, under the eves of the house. The home owner is going to put up scaffolding to remove hive. If anyone else is interested, let me know and I will pass his number along.

[donwal]

Update, on bees in the house. After smoking the opening and watching the bees, came to the conclusion that the bees were robbers from another hive. Sprayed bee quick all along the bottom of the siding, after a while saw less robbers coming in. Left the remaining bottle of bee quick with resident to spray once a day to try and "change" the bees mind about visiting the hive. Told them the best thing to do would be to get the old comb out. Hopefully they can convince the homeowner to have it cut out.

Also left an empty hive body in the area in case there were scout bees looking for another home.

[donwal]

Another update on the bees in the house. After keeping a eye on them them, finally saw them carrying pollen into the house. Since a cut-out was not allowed, trying my first trap-out. Had a lot of openings to block off and not the easiest option to set-up the trap, but it seems to be working. Sally and I finished it up yesterday afternoon. A learning experience for us both. Will be going by today to check on them. A short video below.


https://youtu.be/Jk7F3WHqZ8U

[Wally]

It will work much better setting on two blocks high. The closer to the bottom of the screen the hive entrance is, the quicker they will enter it. I like to have it close enough for them to walk into the hive without having to fly.


http://www.guilfordbeekeepers.org/commu ... =10&t=1315

"" I then set the catch box where the
"porch" area can be slid against the plywood cone mount, an inch or
two below the bottom of the wire cone.I want the bees to walk from the
cone mount to the box, not fly.""

[donwal]

Thanks for the tip Wally. I will do that tomorrow when I go by and check on them. When we checked on the today, a lot of bees were already in the box covering the brood frame we put in yesterday. There seem to be more bees going into the box today. Plugged up some more openings they were trying to get to. We they could not get in, they went back towards the box. I was thinking of turning the entrance towards the house under the opening of the cone. Do you think that will work best Wally?

[Wally]

I try to get it as near this as possible. Facing the house would hinder their flight path.

[donwal]

Checked on the trap out on Saturday. I think their queen tried to come out but got stuck in the screen. With all of the rain we've had, I think they got wet and clogged up the opening. I cleaned out the opening and bees continued coming from the house. I did not see any eggs or young larva in the box. So I'm not sure if they raised a new queen. There is a frame and a half of capped brood, but it does not look like newly capped brood. The frames I gave then may have gotten chilled. There are bees covering at least five frames now. I have a queen that I bought last week and I need to put her in a hive. I am thinking of taking some of the frames from the cutout and move over to a nuc box and putting her in there and taking to my house. I would leave the the original setup there and give them a fresh frame of eggs and brood.

Please let me know your thoughts.

[Wally]

If they raised a queen, she is still a virgin. She has not had time to mate and start laying. I would leave it as is for 10 to 15 days before deciding there is no queen.

[donwal]

I didn't see any signs of a queen cell. I've checked it a few times for queen cells since I set the box up. I guess I could have missed it. The brood that is in there should emerge this week. I'll wait a while longer.

[Wally]

If you put eggs in there at the beginning, all would be emerged in 21 days. If you have capped worker cells, it has been less than 21 days. The queen, on average, will start laying on day 28 from the day the egg is laid. From my calculations, your queen would have emerged three days ago, and now be in day 19 from egg lay. She should be taking mating flights for the next three days or so, then start laying in another week or so.

[donwal]

Trap out was not successful in raising a new queen. Had to give them another frame of eggs, young larva. The box is full of bees and they are still coming out of the house. There were a lot of drones coming out of the house Saturday afternoon. They are bringing pollen back to the hive body I set up. Will check them tomorrow to see if they started raising a queen this time.

[MarkCase]

Where is the cut out on Saturday? I might be interested to come along. The more I learn, the better I will become. Thanks.

[donwal]

Sorry MarkCase I just saw your reply. The cut out was actually done on April 03rd. But if another one comes up, I will let you know.