Bees have been in the wing of this garage for about 2-3 years. The homeowner had no problems with the bees… however, the neighbor did – so the city asked him to “take care of the problem”.
Luckily, he called around and called me for the live removal of the bees.
The garage wing – out to the right of the house.
Bees hanging out at their entrance spot (after I removed the board covering it)
Just a few bees inside. 😉
The bees and comb all taken out. The brood comb (5 frames) was placed into a small 5-frame hive, along with the queen – and the bees were all combined with their comb and the rest of the worker bees later that evening.
The homeowners had been unable to enjoy their back yard, as honeybees had taken up residence in a wall facing their back yard.
When evaluating the honeybees, I noticed that the wall had a bathroom on the inside – with the tub located to the inside of where the bees were entering. When I put my ear to the bathtub, and tapped my knuckles on the tub – sure enough – the bees’ buzz was LOUD.
Unfortunately, about a month ago – the homeowner used some sprays on the bees – greatly knocking down their population, and making the survivors even more defensive of their flight paths.
The siding and inner sheathing was removed – to reveal that the home-builder had not insulated around the tub and associated plumbing. Bees found their way in, and called it “home”.
After removing the comb and bees, I stuffed the open void with fiberglass insulation, then replaced the wood and siding.
I received a call about honeybees in a tree – (a swarm) that had emerged from a known colony in a chimney. I arrived and got the swarm settled into a box – then evaluated the cause of the problem… The chimney bees….
Thie chimney was capped with cement. The plywood backer underneath had rotted and sagged over the years – creating a gap for the bees to enter the space between the flue and the outer chimney bricks. (for size reference, the chimney bricks are 6 feet wide)
I carefully removed a 3-foot wide by 2 foot section of the cement chimney cap, and slowly cut the plywood to reveal the hive within.
This colony had an initial HUGE population. The supporting worker bees created comb in this chimney space that was 4 feet wide, by 4 feet tall (the largest piece that I pulled out).
The comb in this picture is NOT the largest. This comb measured in at 3 feet tall. The largest was 4 feet tall, and 4 feet wide. (I cut them into manageable sizes to remove from the chimney and carry down the ladder).
Once the removal of the bees was complete, I repaired the chimney cap by placing several rods of re-bar across the width of the chimney – to support a cement backer-board (instead of the original plywood) – then I used a support grid of 6″ square metal mesh (thin re-bar) as a reinforcement for the cement. In all – (3) 60-lb backs of cement were mixed, then carried to the top of the chimney to finish the job.
A year ago, I posted a story about 2 hives that were removed from a tree-house. This spring, a fresh swarm from the property found its’ way to the tree-house again – and moved into the joist space under the decking. The pic does not do the removal justice…
These bees were EXTREMELY polite (maybe they were Canadian bees?) and though there were about 10 combs formed, and eggs, brood, and nectar in the comb – they willingly moved into the new box I provided.
This client called me to look at the bees last summer. She was not ready at the time to have them removed – so called me recently with the green-light to proceed.
In the past, someone had sprayed expanding foam into the entrance of the beehive. Unfortunately, honeybees can chew their way through the cured foam. The expanding foam also did damage to the home. It raised the shingles so that the entrance hole was actually larger, and it also allowed rain and moisture to wick in underneath the shingles – and kept the original wooden shingles wet so that they have been rotting over the years.
There were 3 layers of regular modern shingles, and 1 layer of original wooden shingles (that were rotting and had ants living in them)
These bees seemed to be having a bad day, so I wore my suit until almost the end of the removal. The colony had been there for a few years.
Here is what I saw after removing the shingles:
And after removing the wood shingles, and hive was exposed for removal:
This particular removal was completed fairly easily – and ready for her roofing contractor to step in for proper roof repairs.
Last week, I received a call from a customer who had been referred to me by the 911 dispatcher on the other end of his frantic phone call about a swarm of bees in his tree. I removed the swarm fairly quickly – and as I was about to leave he says “My neighbor has bees, too – up in their eve.”
This swarm – and another – had indeed originated from the 2nd floor soffit of his next door neighbor. I spoke with the neighbor, and arranged a time to come remove the bees from their home. Here was the view.
And this is what was opened up:
These bees had a very good demeanor. There was 1 just-emerged queen, as well as an unopened queen cell. Both were saved, along with all of the bees (2 swarms on a neighbor’s tree, as well as the established colony). After removing the bees and the wax/comb – the void space was filled with insulation, then the soffit board was replaced, and new trim was installed, then caulked.
The homeowner called about a swarm – and told me that the bees were coming and going from a hole in a tree. Usually – there is just the bees in the tree and the customer may not know what terms to use. In this case, there truly was a swarm, as well as bees (colony) in a tree.
The bees on the branch were only about 15 feet from the hole in the background of the trunk of the tree. The customers will be deciding on whether or not to have me perform a trapout service for the bees IN the tree – and requested that I remove the active swarm from the branch so that they would not take up residence in the soffit of their home.
Very docile bees! And they will be on their way to Harmony Hollow Apiary this evening.
A short snippet of film… These bees swarmed from a Langstroth hive, and were found about 15 feet from the hive location – and about 10′ up the tree. I scooped them onto a small lid, and poured the first cluster into the hive body – which has a queen excluder underneath it to keep the queen in the until they start building comb and she starts laying eggs. The 2nd cluster of bees was allowed to smell her scent, and fan their wings to call the stragglers to join the rest of the bees from their swarm through the evening.
There is no telling how long ago the honeybees moved into an under-slab storage tank. This tank was built into the slab of a commercial warehouse building – and has sat unused for YEARS. The new owners of the property want the bees to be gone, however did not want to have them killed. After a bit of research – they were referred to me for performing a live removal.
The best option in this situation is a trapout. A one-way exit is placed over the bees’ entrance to their home – and as they exit – they cannot find their way back in. The only drawback to a trapout – is that it takes time. Sometimes up to 6-8 weeks for all the developing bees to mature into flying adults, then exit the hive.
In a day or so, I will return and add a frame of eggs from another hive, so that the worker bees can raise a new queen while we wait for the remainder of the bees to exit their old home.
According to the homeowner, honeybees have occupied this water valve box for the last 2-3 years. The comb was dark, and a bit tough to cut – so that supports the time-frame that she estimated.
The valve box was about 18″ deep into the ground, so the comb was DEEP. The queen looks to be well-mated as she has a solid laying pattern of eggs and brood. Drone comb was also found in this hive. The hive was very populated, and I suspect was about to swarm, since there were multiple swarm cells that were found along the bottom edges of the comb – however, as yet – none of those cells had eggs or larvae in them.
No tags were taken today from these great bees! I look forward to having them in the apiary!
The garage wing – out to the right of the house.
Bees hanging out at their entrance spot (after I removed the board covering it)
Just a few bees inside. 😉
The bees and comb all taken out. The brood comb (5 frames) was placed into a small 5-frame hive, along with the queen – and the bees were all combined with their comb and the rest of the worker bees later that evening.
