I got a call today about doing a cut out. There's an old barn in a stone quarry that's going to be tore down (structurally sound, just in the wrong place). A friend got permission to salvage anything he can. He came across a honey bee hive and called me. I went out today and worked on it for about 4 1/2 hours and my techniquest just were not working. The bees were very upset. I was able to recover about 1/6 of the hive in that amount of time, which just isn't going to cut it. The bees were so angry with us being there by that time, we decided to call it an evening and let them bee :-) I hope that was not a mistake as their hive is now fully exposed. The panel we removed to get to them was an inside panel, not the exterior panel, so they are not in the sun light or wind, however, they are exposed.
How do I get the bees off the comb so I can cut it out? What I did today was smoke, the bees moved, I cut real quick and then put the comb in my hive. Soon, the bees had no where to go and began haning from other comb like a swarm, so I then used the swarm method of squirting them w/sugar water, and brushing them into a bucket, which then went into the hive. This is where they started to get pretty upset. As it stands now, there are way too many bees on the comb still to smoke and have them move out of the way for me to cut.
The hive is a well established hive, I would assume. In one area, they had old, very brittle comb that they were no longer using. The active area was 4' tall by 2' wide and 7 layers deep. There was also miscellaneous comb hanging above the old comb, but it was small sections compared to the main section.
I think I have bit off more than I can chew this time but I gotta finish the job. I don't want to just leave them there now that we have done so much disruption. Further, when the barn is destroyed, they will simply be destroyed with them, which no one wants.
Any advise is greatly appriciated!!!
Jeremy