They were behind two sheets of plywood in an old unused horse stall with a John Deere backhoe in the way.
As cutouts go, I guess this was pretty easy. I'm not sure if I would want to do a hard one. It took a little over 5 hours total.
Started late around 3pm, but it all worked out well. Only a
couple of bees flying when we left just before dark. We got most all of
them.
Found the queen behind a comb in the upper section!! I left
the upper piece of plywood on until the lower part was cleaned
up.
You notice how few bees were on me. They were very tame. I
only smoked them a little at the start & vacuumed the guard bees
first.
They are very small
bees and there are a lot of them!
We got ten frames of brood banded, but they had very little honey put up but the blackberries will be blooming very soon. I'll give them something to get by on until then.
As usual, click on one for a larger slide show
Lots of drone brood
OH ya. Any cut out where I am not standing on a ladder 20 feet up in the air and not worried about damage to a homeowners house is an easy cut out. That is a pretty nice sized hive too. Did ya rubber band the comb into open frames?
ReplyDeleteI filled & banded ten frames. Can't beat ground level. Got a call yesterday for a swarm in a chicken coop wall, but it's a 1 !1/2 hour drive.
DeleteThe lady who wanted me to get the bees out of her chimney can get someone else. A 2 story building B&B and all the fireplaces are sealed off.
That looked like a really big hive! How long do you estimate they have been in the wall?
ReplyDeleteThe lady said a couple of years.
Delete