Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => HONEYBEE REMOVAL => Topic started by: Understudy on January 31, 2008, 07:50:14 pm
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What I love about cut outs and feral hives is they have stories to them. This one isn't finished so I will leave you with a cliff hanger but I stopped because this was to good to do without pictures and I plan on taking some tomorrow.
I like hives that have been in the wild for a while. They have survived under adverse conditions and usually are pretty strong and healthy. Think Purvis queens without the cost.
Working at the fair you listen to the "Are those killer bees?" people when they see your observatiuon hive. You answer everyone who has a question about CCD by pressing play on the tape recorder in your head because it is the same answer over and over. You hear the stories how everyone's grandfather was a beekeeper but you never hear the stories of anyone under 50 being a beekeeper. And every kid out there is more than willing to tell you that they have been stung by a bee. But how the bee that stung them doesn't look like the one's in the observation hive.
Then there is that rare treasure. The person comes over and they have almost a look of relief on their face. Do you take bees from homes(you can substitute homes for almost any other common location)? When you tell them yes. You can see the glow return to their complextion.
Such was the case as this woman came over while I was working the fair. She explained they were in a box. I was like what kind of box? A box that the bees are living in. I almost thought she was speaking of a hive box because it was a white box on the ground. But something about it didn't seem like a hive box so i told her I would go by after I got back from Dallas, TX. Well I went by today.
The woman's husband led me out just past the fence of her backyard. Into an area that was over grown with saw grass and other plants and tress you would find common in Florida if you walk along the canal. The little strip of land was next to a drainage canal that had not been cleaned for a long time. Her husband and I trappst through the overgrowth like a pair of amature explorers. And then we found it. Next to the fence was a white box at a wierd angle. With bees coming in and out of it near an opening at ground level. A closer examination showed the box to be a old style styrofoam igloo like container.
Now one way to get bees worked up is to wave branches and or sawgrass over the entrance of the hive. So we had been very carefull but I still got poped on the eyebrow. We slowly backed out of jungle adventure. I went and got in my full bee suit something I rarely do even on cut outs. Got the smoke lit and borrowed his machete. Now I look like some B horror film serial killer with a machete in one hand and a smoker in the other.
I work my way back to the makeshift offbrand beemax stryrofoam hive they live in. I smoke heavily because i am getting ready to do a lot of distrubing of the enviroment around this hive.
So without losing any fingers or bad strokes that would remove one of my limbs. I managed to cut around the hive. What I saw made me say I am coming back tomorrow.
The igloo had a hive in and it looks like someone took the hive and tossed it with the hive into this area. The comb is at wierd angles and has the gray color of old comb. The bees don't work that comb. That comb was also exposed. A young tree ahd started to grow through the exposed comb. There was the tall stems of the swamp grasses that had also surronded the igloo. In spite of all of this and the hive at ground level it had survived. And there there was one more. I brushed some dirt off the top of the igloo to clear my site of the igloo. My surprise was the dirt was an ant hill. So here is a hive that has been here at least one year if not longer. And has survived all of these horrible conditions. I worked on freeing up as much as was securing the hive to the ground. I need to be able to remove this in one pull without it falling apart. Here is a hive with no health issues that has been around for a while and survivied all the nastiness mother nature can throw at it.
After I had cleard away enough that I was comfortable with what I was seeing and I was able to look at the inner comb. I decided I would stop and come back tomorrow and take photos and so you guys what was going on. This one is a keeper.
With my luck I will go back tomorrow and they will have absconded.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
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I guess you'll need to bring lots of cinnamon for the ants, right? I'm having trouble imagining this odd hive so please take pictures, I know you said you will, ok, I trust you won't keep us in suspense for too long. Good luck, this sounds like a weird one.
......JP
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Can't wait to here how this one turns out. I would like to see the pictures, too. I don't quite understand the part about "the igloo had a hive in it and it looks like someone took the hive and tossed it with the hive into this area". Was there a hive body in the cooler or was the comb built directly onto the cooler? Love your removal stories. You are way braver than I am!
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Can't wait to here how this one turns out. I would like to see the pictures, too. I don't quite understand the part about "the igloo had a hive in it and it looks like someone took the hive and tossed it with the hive into this area". Was there a hive body in the cooler or was the comb built directly onto the cooler? Love your removal stories. You are way braver than I am!
What it looks like is there was a hive in this cooler and someone took it and then tossed into the area it is now. Despite being tossed here and landing at a bad angle the hive survived. They have since built more comb and use that have abandon the odd angled comb.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
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Interesting. Just goes to show the bees are much tougher than they seem. Anxiously awaiting the next installment!
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Brendhan,
Do I have to buy you a gear bag or something so that the camera is on your person 24/7 ? :-D
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Funny you mention the no beekeepers under 50 thing.
I have been interviewing people for out yards and the most common greeting I have been getting when I go out and look a place over is "You are really young for a beekeeper, I was expecting somebody older".
I have been replying that I was a beekeeper in my last life too :-D
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Brendhan,
Do I have to buy you a gear bag or something so that the camera is on your person 24/7 ? :-D
I use to have my Nikon on me 24/7 to the point where my wife would not go anywhere with me.
I have gone down to a point and shoot. I use it mainly for the day job but I left it in the work van.
All very bad excuses but life sometimes happen.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
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Brendhan,
Do I have to buy you a gear bag or something so that the camera is on your person 24/7 ? :-D
I use to have my Nikon on me 24/7 to the point where my wife would not go anywhere with me.
I have gone down to a point and shoot. I use it mainly for the day job but I left it in the work van.
All very bad excuses but life sometimes happen.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
I keep a Fujifilm finepix 4900 with me most of the time also. Great photo ops for me are few and far between, but then again, like you said, bad excuses. Hope the op is there for you tomorrow. :-D
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Ooooh, Brendhan, I can't wait for your pictures and the rest of the rest. Hav a great day tomorrow. Cindi
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Why did the post from mlewis48, "How cold is too cold for removals??" get moved to the "Honeybee Removal" section and this post gets to stay in the main forum? Both posts are about removing honeybees. I'm just curious and would like to know what the difference is before I make any posts so that I am sure to put them in the right place.
Thanks.
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Sometimes the powers that be are slow to respond. Sometimes they miss one or two. Moderators are people too.
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Why did the post from mlewis48, "How cold is too cold for removals??" get moved to the "Honeybee Removal" section and this post gets to stay in the main forum? Both posts are about removing honeybees. I'm just curious and would like to know what the difference is before I make any posts so that I am sure to put them in the right place.
Thanks.
After Understudy does the removal, they move it to "removal" section , until then its general bee
stuff :-D
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Those bees must be tuff
kirko
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Leave it to me to screw up a good thing. :'(
Let's just say that the igloo had almost no structual integrity. There were lots of vines embedded in the wax. In a nutshell:
This thing broke as I tried to remove it. I tried to be delicate with it. I failed. The hive would have been fine had I never touched it.
No idea on the queen. :(
Photos are sad, depressing and here.
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=130 (http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=130)
Sincerely,
Brendhan
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Better luck next time Brendhan
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Brendhan, good that you tried. The pictures sure do depict one blazes of a mess eh? It was a good thing that you tried to make things well for these bees, something good may come of it, still take my hat off to you that you tried to help these little critters. Have a wonderful day, Cindi
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Oh well, at least you get extra points for trying!