Author Topic: Swarm Catching Business Cards (Read 8401 times)

mtnb · « **on:** February 08, 2016, 01:40:38 pm »

Hi guys! I had some cards made up and wanted to show them to you all. What do you all think? I like 'em. A lot.

http://s284.photobucket.com/user/MTBeeGirl/media/Misc/Bee%20Card_zpsvcca6cbc.jpeg.html?sort=3&o=0

(sorry, I can't seem to ever get the pics small enough to post here directly)

Dallasbeek · « **Reply #1 on:** February 08, 2016, 01:57:31 pm »

I like it a lot. Very attractive appearance and has all the pertinent facts -- and what you are not prepared to do. That's important, too, and should avoid a waste of time. Good luck. Do you have a long ladder? LOL

mtnb · « **Reply #2 on:** February 08, 2016, 02:04:54 pm »

Thanks Dallas! In fact, I DO! lol My husband's a carpenter so I have access to ALL the tools. I might try an easy cut out if it comes up. I do know how houses are laid out inside the walls and such and my hubby could repair. Just not for free. lol

I'm so nervous and excited at the same time! lol

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2016, 02:37:59 pm »

There is absolutely nothing like cutting into a soffit to remove a hive thats "only been there a few weeks" with the homeowner standing at a safe distance...and then having to remove two more sections to reveal a 10 foot hive 3+ year old hive.....and thinking to yourself...oh crap....I don't have enough buckets, boxes, time to do this before dark....who do I have on speedial that can help me out of a jam ;-)

Its fun and exciting.....just not fun and exciting for your first cutout.....don't be like ME :-) Thank god I have contractor friends who aren't afraid of bees and willing to help out....course I owed him a LOT of home-brew for the assist...matter of fact I am still paying him off and there is 10 gallons of Irish Red fermenting now that is going to his St patty's day party lol.

iddee · « **Reply #4 on:** February 08, 2016, 02:57:14 pm »

Soffit?? Try going into the dining room of a house that was on the cover of better homes and gardens, cutting the ceiling out and removing the comb and bees, just to watch the queen leave the hive and the whole swarm go into another section. Then cut more ceiling out and go get them.

ON A SUNDAY MORNING.... Then find someone to do the repairs that day.
Yes, cutouts can be all kinds of fun.

PS. Nice cards....

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #5 on:** February 08, 2016, 04:16:36 pm »

Ok Iddee you win LOL...at least I was outside the house and the mess I made was easily hosed down and I didnt have to cut any drywall....just pop boards loose and replace ;-)

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:45:10 pm »

Yvonne,
That is a really good card. Brief and to the point.
Jim

mtnb · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:50:37 pm »

Oh Iddee. You definitely win! lol I would love to be in attendance at something like that. I'm going to really try to find another beekeeper that does cut-outs that I could watch and help. We do have that Global Patties place which is right out of Butte, MT where I work, so I need to stop by there and say hi and see what's going on. Jeff, I'm not a contractor, but I'd be your bee friend that'd help you out for nothing. lol Well, maybe a little meade. lol

I do have a couple of leads already though. lol My assistant manager moved into a house last spring and he's pretty sure the large doll house out back in the yard has bees in it. He's deathly allergic so hasn't investigated. He said he'd love for me to look and take them if they're there. :) And another co-worker said his parents' house has a bee tree which had a huge colony but he thinks the wind may have blown in over but he's going to check it out.

Do you guys think I should put in an order for another nuc or do you think I'll get calls? Idk, I'm envisioning myself getting so many calls that I won't have enough places to put them. lol On the other hand, I only have the one colony so far LOL! which I will split this spring hopefully so that'll give me two. Hopefully they won't die. Jeez Sucks to have to think that... I don't want to be paying for a nuc when I'm going to be swimming in them, kwim? lol I know mine are going to prosper here with me. I think I've got a good spot.

mtnb · « **Reply #8 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:51:32 pm »

Quote from: iddee on February 08, 2016, 02:57:14 pm

PS. Nice cards....

Thank you!

mtnb · « **Reply #9 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:52:09 pm »

Quote from: sawdstmakr on February 09, 2016, 12:45:10 pm

Yvonne,
That is a really good card. Brief and to the point.
Jim

Thank you Jim! I'm really glad you all like it!

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:54:04 pm »

YOU DON'T have a nuc!

Better make or buy one before your spring gets here. Put that carpenter hubby of yours to work on making them.

Jim

mtnb · « **Reply #11 on:** February 09, 2016, 01:02:15 pm »

No, no. I'm sorry. I DO have a nuc. TWO of them! lol I mean buying a 5 frame nuc full of bees from the same guy I got mine from last spring for $125. Think I should spend the $$$ on bees? I do like free bees. lol (I honestly never realized the full extend to that common phrase!) lol

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #12 on:** February 09, 2016, 01:23:21 pm »

Build some swarm boxes......and also do swarm calls and removals....and split your existing hive.....you shouldn't need to buy bees

Only reason I would see you needing to put an order in for a NUC is to hedge your bets... if your current hive has an issue late winter and doesn't make it....you know you will have bees even if the swarm calls dont roll in and you dont have any luck catching a swarm in a trap.

Rurification · « **Reply #13 on:** February 09, 2016, 02:57:47 pm »

Yvonne - Great card!!

I did my first cutout from the ceiling of a finished basement bedroom. The bees were coming in under the cedar siding and the rim joist, following a groove along the foundation and into the area between the basement ceiling and 1st story flooring, where they built between the joists. Exciting.

If you're going to do cut-outs you NEED a bee vac. Don't try one without.

Hope you get lots of calls!

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 09, 2016, 11:58:08 pm »

My first cut out was a 30"
By 30" brick column. Had to remove 18" of the top bricks. They were really nice bees.
Jim

mtnb · « **Reply #15 on:** February 10, 2016, 12:29:19 pm »

I plan on doing just that Jeff. I've taken inventory of everything I have and am ordering what I think I'll need. My goal really is to go into winter with 6 hives - my own plus the split, and then I really only need 4 calls, with 1 lead already looking promising. I'll have 100 cards out there so 4 calls that pan out, out of a 100, is not too much to ask for. lol I'm thinking I may pass on the buying bees but if I do that, and things go south for me, please remind me in the fall what an idiot I am. lol

Quote from: Rurification on February 09, 2016, 02:57:47 pm

Yvonne - Great card!!
If you're going to do cut-outs you NEED a bee vac. Don't try one without.

Hope you get lots of calls!

Thank you Robin!
That's a great point! I've been thinking about the items I should put in my truck to have on hand in case I get a call when I'm away from home. I work about 1/2 hour from my house, so it's not too easy to just go home. (For a swarm, I mean.) I was thinking things like a swarm box, a white sheet, rope, ladder, rachet straps, beesuit, hive tool, smoker, gloves....idk what else?...I'm ordering that dvd The Swarm PLus. It says it shows 9 different swarm catches in different scenarios. I bet I'll learn something from that. Plus there's youtube and I still have a couple of months hopefully. lol I do think a bee vac would be a very handy thing to have. I really just need to show one to my hubby...

Did you tell those people that it was your first cut-out when you did your first cut-out? I bet that was very exciting!

Jim, your first sounds exciting too. Does all that noise trying to cut the bricks out aggravate the bees? guess it depends on their temper...Did you re-brick? :)

So...if you have a nest in your wall and you remove the bees, say by spraying them, the remaining comb in the wall will attract other small critters like ants and mice that can cause problems? ...is that right? what kinds of problems? is that what you would say in defense of removing them vs killing them?

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 10, 2016, 01:50:51 pm »

Quote from: MT Bee Girl on February 10, 2016, 12:29:19 pm

Jim, your first sounds exciting too. Does all that noise trying to cut the bricks out aggravate the bees? guess it depends on their temper...Did you re-brick? :)

So...if you have a nest in your wall and you remove the bees, say by spraying them, the remaining comb in the wall will attract other small critters like ants and mice that can cause problems? ...is that right? what kinds of problems? is that what you would say in defense of removing them vs killing them?

I did not rebrick, it was agreed from the beginning that they would have it done. I tried real hard to not cut the bricks so they could be reused. Turned out, the crooked bricklayer filled the center of the column with hundreds of perfectly good bricks. They get paid by the brick.
I was expecting the bees to bee very aggravated. They were not. I minimized the problem by just barely cutting through the mortar.
If you spray the bees, or just trap out the bees, in a weeks time, the inside of the walls will be dripping with honey. I did a trap out that I thought the bees were in the out side wall but they were in the ceiling and the honey was flowing for 3 weeks, then the SHB larvae were coming out of the walls by the thousands.
If you want to learn about removals, just search JP the Beeman here in this site. He has hundreds of videos of how to do it. Check out his site on U-tube.
Jim

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #17 on:** February 10, 2016, 07:24:57 pm »

+1 to what Jim said...I NEVER recommend a trap out in a dwelling...if they aren't willing to pay for a cutout...walk away and tell them to either live with the bees or save up the money to get them removed. Explain the scenario Jim outlined because it will happen almost 100% of the time if the colony is killed or trapped out and the comb isn't removed.

You Tube search JP the Beeman...and 628Dirtrooster both have some great video skills as well as being fun to watch removal videos.

There is a pinned post in this forum called tools for the cutout and there are several docs there that outline what most people find useful...or mssg me on face book if you see I am on and I can send you my personal "list" :-)

iddee · « **Reply #18 on:** February 10, 2016, 08:50:59 pm »

Notice both the no-trap guys are in Florida. I agree with them.

That said, if you are far enough north that the SHB aren't terrible, as I am, a trap out works great. It will remove the bees, then they will go in and remove the honey. Nothing left but dry comb.

http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=20301.0

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #19 on:** February 10, 2016, 10:54:18 pm »

Well she is in Montana....LOL so our experiences in the oh so buggy south probably don't apply to Yvonne ;-)

Rurification · « **Reply #20 on:** February 11, 2016, 10:13:21 am »

For my cut out, the client was a long time client of my husband's. She knew that we know bees and that afterward Eric would be doing the repair and doing it right and respecting her house. I didn't tell her that it was our first cut out - I was too busy explaining how bee colonies work. She was concerned they'd make another queen and move back in.

Make sure you take a water/honey-proof tarp or sheet of plastic for the floor.

After I cleared the comb, I had to stick my head back in there and figure out how they were getting in. Then we had to decide how to seal it up both on the inside of the house and the outside. And then I had to do it. It took a few cans of sprayfoam to seal everything up, which I had to do in the space between joists with my head, a flashlight and the can of foam all up there at the same time. It was easy to tell when it was really sealed because the bees stopped coming back in through there.

Exciting.

iddee · « **Reply #21 on:** February 11, 2016, 10:29:47 am »

I prefer to pack the hollow area with insulation and not worry about them getting back in. A 1/4 inch hole is all you need to miss for another swarm to move in. It will not move in if there is not enough open space to build the comb.

DJS · « **Reply #22 on:** February 12, 2016, 10:16:10 am »

I do about 30 cutouts a year to help support my hobby of beekeeping. What I have learned is to be ready for anything they bees are not always where you think they should be. I agree that a bee vac is very handy on most removals, and also found that a Boar Scoop camera can be useful. Last year I had access to a thermal imagine camera and that came in handy of a several jobs.

mtnb · « **Reply #23 on:** February 12, 2016, 11:55:29 am »

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and advice! The tarp is a great idea too Robin! Yesterday my husband was heading to Helena so I texted him and asked him to pick me up a cheap shop vac so I could build a bee vac. He texted me back that he has several and I can have one. Yay. :) A few hours later he stopped by my work so I asked him, if I get him instructions, will he build the bee vac for me? LOL He just lauged and laughed and said he knew that was coming. lol

If you're doing a cut-out, is the agreement totally verbal with a hand shake or do you make the homeowner sign something? I obviously don't have any insurance or anything.

iddee · « **Reply #24 on:** February 12, 2016, 12:15:52 pm »

Some do have contracts, I don't.
Number one rule. Don't hesitate to walk away if something doesn't feel right.
If I feel like I need a contract with a particular homeowner, I refuse to do the job.

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #25 on:** February 12, 2016, 12:23:19 pm »

+1 with idee statement......there are some "interesting" people out there...probably less so in your area than is some of the more urban areas. But yes dont be afraid to walk away from jobs that look too big...but also dont be afraid to come up with new and interesting ways to "skin a cat"...I have a recent friendship with a contractor down here in the keys who is fascinated with the idea of being close to bees....he is itching to come along on my next cutout....gets him work if he can quote the "put it back together cost" to the homeowner and helps me with a second set of hands and a chance to learn the best way to cut out with the least damage :-)

win win win for all three parties involved ;-)

iddee · « **Reply #26 on:** February 12, 2016, 12:44:36 pm »

One caution, KLB.

I have a couple contractor friends that do cutouts. None of us will take the cutout job AND the repair. There is always a good chance of a new swarm moving in, no matter the precaution taken. If one person does both, it is their fault in the homeowner's eyes, and they expect the second job to be free. After all, you didn't do it right the first time.

If a beek removes them, and a contractor repairs, the beek says, "I'm no contractor. It's not my fault it didn't get sealed."

The contractor says, "I'm no beekeeper. I can't remove them."

Dallasbeek · « **Reply #27 on:** February 12, 2016, 04:22:56 pm »

Iddee, somehow that sounds like the government. Or maybe a lawyer at work.

iddee · « **Reply #28 on:** February 12, 2016, 05:26:00 pm »

40 years of removals, I've never been asked to do a repeat for free. IT WORKS!

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #29 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:18:45 am »

Understood Idee...."beeproofing" beyond a 1 year guarantee of "same hive entrance location" is the responsibility of the homeowner and the scenario you outlined has already been discussed and planned for ;-)

mtnb · « **Reply #30 on:** February 16, 2016, 01:11:55 pm »

Interesting! I learn a lot just by you guys talking.

Jim, believe me, out here, we have our own special kind of stupid. lol

So...say someone calls you and you get there and the honeybees turn out to be wasps or hornets. What do you all generally do then? How WOULD one remove wasps or hornets if they asked you to?

Dallasbeek · « **Reply #31 on:** February 16, 2016, 01:44:45 pm »

If you're licensed as a pest control company, you kill them. If not, you walk away or you are violating the law and could be cited and fined. Honey bee removal is an exception to pest control laws. But it's a little unclear to me if you could exterminate honey bees if the property owner asked that of you. I suspect not, since you would then be performing pest control services in violation of the law.

texanbelchers · « **Reply #32 on:** February 16, 2016, 02:23:42 pm »

There are also websites you can point people to so they can verify what they are looking at. I always ask for pictures before I make the trip; but even those can be deceptive. Some people have a minimum trip charge to help dissuade unnecessary calls.

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #33 on:** February 16, 2016, 10:34:01 pm »

Quote from: MT Bee Girl on February 16, 2016, 01:11:55 pm

Interesting! I learn a lot just by you guys talking. Jim, believe me, out here, we have our own special kind of stupid. lol

So...say someone calls you and you get there and the honeybees turn out to be wasps or hornets. What do you all generally do then? How WOULD one remove wasps or hornets if they asked you to?

Here in FL you don,t, as Dallas said it is illegal. It may bee different where you are.
One way to stop the trip before hand is to ask them to send you a picture. Also ask them what they sprayed them with. Do not ask if they sprayed them, they will say nothing. When you ask what, they usually answer you. If they did spray them do not bother with them. Tell them the hive will be dead soon and the honey will start flowing soon, into their house. If they still want you to remove them charge them double.
Jim

mtnb · « **Reply #34 on:** February 17, 2016, 12:44:07 am »

I did not know it would be illegal to remove anything but honeybees. Great tips! Thanks!

iddee · « **Reply #35 on:** February 17, 2016, 07:17:50 am »

It's not illegal to move them. It's illegal to dispense poisons. It's also illegal to kill them. If you want to catch a nest of hornets alive, you can, as long as you don't charge for it.

KeyLargoBees · « **Reply #36 on:** February 17, 2016, 08:36:42 am »

And they will be such a nice and cuddly addition to your bee yard ;-)

mtnb · « **Reply #37 on:** February 17, 2016, 08:48:19 am »

Quote from: iddee on February 17, 2016, 07:17:50 am

It's not illegal to move them. It's illegal to dispense poisons. It's also illegal to kill them. If you want to catch a nest of hornets alive, you can, as long as you don't charge for it.

Ah. Ok. I'm just thinking about the guy at work that says he has bees in his kids' playhouse outside. I'm learning that not too many people know the difference between bees and wasps or hornets.

I really do not want them! lol

iddee · « **Reply #38 on:** February 17, 2016, 10:09:42 am »

I have taken honeybees out of outside playhouses and slides, so you may want to confirm what they are.

mtnb · « **Reply #39 on:** February 18, 2016, 11:12:18 am »

Oh I definitely will!