Last year some of you may remember I removed a colony from an old garage. I began the day before thanksgiving and went back the day after because the queen went deep into the side wall and I just couldn't get to her that day. Did get her black Friday and the rest is history. They have been at Schawee's for some time now.
Well, wouldn't you know it today I removed a colony between floor joists of an attached garage. I didn't take a single picture nor did I film, just wasn't up to it this evening. I could take some pictures or do a video tomorrow morning for anyone interested. They are in the back of my truck now.
My plan is to combine them with a small queenless colony I have been feeding since Halloween. I could make a video of that.
Anyway, went in through the sheetrock ceiling on this one. Had to open three sections up and use bee quick to run a bunch of bees upward from down in the wall void, between the soundboard and brick.
Late evening they started to cluster quite a bit but I was sure glad the queen came up and I was able to catch her on the band board.
We had a mild front come in last night so we did have a slight change in our weather. Boy did the bees cluster tonight after I shook them atop the frames. I had to really work them to get 'em to go down into the nuc because they were just plain determined to huddle together on the outside of the box. After a good 45 minutes of workin' 'em finally was able to put the top cover on and seal the entrance.
If it were not for daylight's saving time I would have gotten home about 20 til eleven, which would have sucked big time. So even though I abhor the time change I was happy to get home at a reasonable hour.
Happy thanksgiving to everyone!
...JP