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Author Topic: Removing  (Read 2660 times)

Offline gssmith1986

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Removing
« on: July 18, 2016, 08:20:56 am »
Hi, new to this forum, and wanted some suggestions on hiving a colony I discovered that moved in under my ground level backyard deck.  The deck is barely 6" off the ground, so there is not much clearance beneath it and I can't get access from either end.  The deckboards are both nailed & glued to the joists so simply prying the boards up is not going to be easy and any dismantle is going to be violent.  The bees are entering and exiting the deck between the deck boards.  I'd like to get them out from under the deck and into a hive body without tearing up the deck, so I put a 10 frame deep hive body with old drawn comb directly over them and many bees have moved into the hive body, and started cleaning up the old comb.  The hive body has been in place for about a week and I checked it yesterday, but no queen has come into the hive body as yet.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to induce the queen to come into the hive body?  Thanks in advance.


Offline texanbelchers

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Re: Removing
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2016, 05:48:18 pm »
I suspect this is going to be a loooong process.  Even if you get the queen out, the old comb will still be under there and act like a great swarm trap.

So, to continue your process, the bees appear to be cleaning and if the queen runs out of room below she may move up.  You would need to find her in that box and put a queen excluded under it thereby trapping here in the deep.  After a three weeks, the brood below will have emerged.  You could then try heavy smoke and carefully placed Honey-B-Gone to encourage all of the bees below to move up.  Finally, you would move the deep onto a bottom board into it's new location.  The foragers will go back and clean up what they want from the old location.  I think this would be called a wishful thinking, encourage out (TM).

I would probably look at lifting the entire deck and cut them out from below.  Depending on how it is anchored, that may not be possible.  If not, I would suggest cutting the boards near the joists, removing the bees and comb, installing sleeper joists, and putting the boards back down.  I've done sheds both ways.

Offline gssmith1986

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Re: Removing
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2016, 03:39:27 pm »
Thanks, I've got a probe scope that I'm going to survey the size of the colony this weekend.  Looking through the cracks, it doesn't appear they've made much headway in comb buildout, and I know they don't have much room under the deck to build downward.  I think they've maybe been here about 4 weeks.  I may try and remove one board and then use a bee vac to catch what I can...then cut out the new comb.  Honestly, it looks like the whole hive is about 18"x18", with at most a foot under the deck before they hit ground. 

Offline divemaster1963

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Re: Removing
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2016, 04:03:32 pm »
Hey maybe this way will help. Use a sawsall and cut the  joists about two feet wider than the hive then cut the deckingwider than the hive. Place hinges at one end and handle at other.. Basicly making a celar door approach. Hten lift door. Do your cut out. Place sister joist to each cut joist and screw back down.easy peasy take a lot less time than cutting each board and trying to match them.

John

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Removing
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2016, 06:29:34 am »
I like John's idea. That way when you are done, you close it and can do it again when the next swarm finds it. It would make a good swarm trap.
Jim
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