{"id":363,"date":"2010-06-12T14:15:43","date_gmt":"2010-06-12T19:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/?p=363"},"modified":"2012-06-14T10:18:19","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T15:18:19","slug":"removing-bees-from-a-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/2010\/06\/12\/removing-bees-from-a-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Removing Bees from a House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some very nice folks in Brunswick had some bees in their house (see previous post<\/a>). \u00a0 So the \u00a0Cumberland County Beekeepers<\/a> came to the rescue by turning it into a learning opportunity and holding a Bee Removal Workshop<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Master Beekeeper (and Maine State Beekeepers Assn. President) Erin MacGregor-Forbes<\/a> agreed to lead a group through a live removal of honeybees from a building.<\/p>\n

The rain held out, and we were in business.<\/p>\n

These images will walk you through the process.<\/p>\n

\"Setting
Setting up for the honey bee removal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The homeowner set up scaffolding for the group to work (above) and the rest of us bought out the gear. \u00a0It looked like a beekeepers yard sale.<\/p>\n

\"John,<\/span>
John, Keith and Chris getting the bee removal equipment ready.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had three different kinds of bee-vacs, lots of empty frames, buckets, nucs, tools – you name it.<\/p>\n

\"Chris
Chris and Erin starting to pry open the facia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We got to work getting things opened up in a manner that would not destroy the house.<\/p>\n

\"Chris
Chris and Keith trimming nails on the interior, so that no one would get poked during the operation. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The house had originally had a flat roof, so there was some funkiness inside that had to be dealt with by the crew.<\/p>\n

\"Erin
Erin (in Overland garb) and Chris continue the dismantling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opening up the house went pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

\"To
To quote Peggy Lee: "Is that all there is?"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So the crew got it opened up and was surprised to find only a couple of small combs and a couple of hundred bees.<\/p>\n

\"Small
Small colony of Honey Bees and an empty Paper Wasp nest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So here we were with a small colony and a Paper Wasp nest (inactive). \u00a0It seemed as if\u00a0the bees I had snagged a couple of weeks earlier<\/a> were actually the bulk of the swarm, and that they had just arrived when I had come by to scoop them up. \u00a0I had assumed that they had been there for a while, and were just coming out for some air on a very hot day. \u00a0One of the reasons for this theory is that the homeowners had previously had honeybees in a similar cavity in the house. \u00a0We had just figured that new bees had smelled the last occupants and had figured out that the cavity was perfect for them. \u00a0 The reality is probably that I had captured most of the swarm and these were the pioneers of the colony who were inside the house at the time.<\/p>\n

\"Vacuuming
Vacuuming the bees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So Erin and Chris got to vacuuming the bees out with a special bee-vac (note the smooth tube, so that the bees don’t get too clobbered on the way in).<\/p>\n

\"Honeybees
Honeybees in the hose<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The vacuum is set up so that it doesn’t suck them in too hard and kill all the bees.<\/p>\n

\"Erin
Erin rubber banding comb into empty frames<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The comb is removed from the structure and loosely rubber banded into empty frames. \u00a0All the while looking for the queen, brood and eggs. \u00a0Only a small patch of eggs were found.<\/p>\n

\"Happy
Happy Homeowner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joel borrowed a “bee suit” and helped with the process. \u00a0I think he was very happy to have the bees out of his house.<\/p>\n

\"The
The bees that were sucked up by the "bee-vac"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We used a very nifty contraption that sucked the bees into “cartridges” that were made of of the packages that bees come in (when you order them from down South) and was housed in a modified “nuc” box.<\/p>\n

\"All
All finished. Emptied out cavity in the house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In conclusion, for me, even though it went very quickly and we didn’t have tons of bees to pull out of the structure it was a highly successful endeavor. \u00a0We all learned the process and steps one goes through to prep and remove honeybees from a structure form an experienced bee-remover. \u00a0We also got hands on training with the specialized equipment that is frequently used. \u00a0From what I understand, the only thing missing was hordes of angry stinging bees. \u00a0That is fine with me.<\/p>\n

Many thanks to all who participated for a fine afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some very nice folks in Brunswick had some bees in their house (see previous post). \u00a0 So the \u00a0Cumberland County Beekeepers came to the rescue by turning it into a learning opportunity and holding a Bee Removal Workshop. Master Beekeeper (and Maine State Beekeepers Assn. President) Erin MacGregor-Forbes agreed to lead a group through a … Continue reading “Removing Bees from a House”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[147,18,70,19,44,69,54,30],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beekeeping","tag-beekeeping","tag-bees","tag-cumberland-county-beekeepers","tag-honeybee","tag-overland-apiaries","tag-removal","tag-swarm","tag-wasp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605,"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/d-n-i.com\/tidbits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}