Capture suggestions...

[Sundog]

A friend of mine has bees in his tree, and I could stand another hive in my backyard.

The bees are eight or nine feet up in the tree and by the looks of the comb, have been there for a while.  I am prepparing to try and collect them and contemplating the best approach.  The tree is in my friend's yard and quite accessable.

I'm thinking just cut and mount the combs in frames, try hard to capture the queen, and leave the box for a few days.

TIA for comments and suggestions.






 

[Maggiesdad]

That definitely wins freestyle hive of the week! 

Good luck!

[jredburn]

Sundog,
Open air nests in Florida means they have some African genes in them.  Could be  little could be a lot.  Either way they will abscond with only a minor disturbance.
They way I have worked out is to smoke them, (spray them down with a sugar solution also) then trim the branches from around the main hive and throw a net over the top and down both sides.  I pin the the side together to keep as many bees inside the envelope as possible.  The net is a fibreglass  insect net from  a nursery.  If I can I will take a saw and cut the limb just outside the edge of the nest, then support the limb and the nest, then cut the limb on the inside edge of the hive.  Let the limb down into a box and take the whole mess to my yard.
If I cannot cut the limb (for whatever reason) I still wrap it with the net.  Then working from under the net I cut the comb loose and put it in frames.  The queen will come out of the comb rather quickly and head for the top of the net.  Keep an eye out for her and cage her when you do see her.  Generally the bees will cluster around her.
I have found I get the best result if I put the comb/bees in a box and seal them in for 3 to 5 days.  Nobody goes in or out.  I put a wire screen over a couple entrances for ventilation.  When you do open the door put a queen excluder over the entrance and an anti robbing screen over that.  Don't feed them the first week, leave honey in the box for them instead.
Regards
Joe

[iddee]

Joe, I would change the first line to,  "have a very good chance of having some africanized genes"".
There were open hives of bees in Florida long before the africanized bees got there, and are most likely some still there.

[BeeMaster2]

Wow, Sundog.
I have removed 3 open air hives. None of them were even half as big as that hive. The last one was 2' x 8". I have not had to use any protection for any of them. The first one had the comb dropping left and right but never had a single sting from them.
That said, I am not in AHB territory. If I was in your area, I would not work with
out protection.
The last one that I did, the large one, was about 10' above the ground. I attached a 2" ratchet strap to the branch and wrapped another strap around the base of the trunk and connected the 2" to it. We pulled the branch down as far as possible and then ratchetted it down some more and brought the branch to about 7 feet. That way I was not working on the ladder. That was last October and the hive is going strong and it is gentle.
Jim

[JP]

Peter, this thing likely has a good bit of weight to it if they have any honey stores to speak of. I would suit up & perform a cut out as you would approach any cut out. A lot of the comb won't be usable but transfer what brood comb you can & secure them into frames. Start early, take your time & go at it bit by bit. If you can get the queen, cage her & attach her to one of your frames. Leave the set up atop a ladder, a 6' one will do or a table or some other platform will do. Leave it there for 2-3 days, then move the set up onto your truck after dark.


...JP

[BeeMaster2]

JP,
Not sure what is going on but the last 3 videos that you have posted, this one and 2 in Bud7,  all say:
This video does not exist.
Jim

[Sundog]

My son Kevin on the ladder, vacuuming the bees and cutting the comb, while I mounted the brood comb frames into a deep box.  Hive is eleven feet off the ground.  With the exception of one or two bees early on, they were quite calm for most of the process.  We did get a couple hits each at the onset, so we suited up.






Vacuum collector box with brood box on top, collected bees moving up (inside) into the brood box.  We collected A LOT of bees but I think the mortality rate was a bit high, maybe a cup of bees.  Not sure if it was caused by the long hose or too much vacuum.




End of the day with the screened bottom board, the brood box, and the leftover comb so they could collect the pollen.  There were virtually no honey stores, so we left them with some sugar water.




Because the hive was in a friend?s yard, we were able to leave it for a longer period of time before moving it home into my backyard.  The colony appears to be doing just fine in their new home.  They have oriented, chewed through most of the rubber bands and tossed them out, and seem to be foraging nicely.




I also have to give a big THANK YOU shout-out to His Excellency JP for all his sagacious advice and support. 

Great fun!

[OldMech]

WOW thats a whopper of an external hive!
   Often when doing a cut out the bees will be aggressive until they become demoralized, and OR you get the majority of the guard bees vacced up.

[Sundog]

Checked on the girls last week, couldn't find the queen and wasn't certain I was seeing any fresh eggs.  So today, I took a camera.  Amazing, what a camera sees.  Anyway, things look good. I have six frames that look similar to the one shown and the girls are as busy as, well... bees.

Having fun!

[BeeMaster2]

Looks good Sundog.
Jim

[DavidD]

Is that your queen in the top left of photo #2

[BeeMaster2]

Is that your queen in the top left of photo #2

Looks like a queen to me. Good eye.
Jim

[Sundog]

Is that your queen in the top left of photo #2

It is the queen, and everything looks good with the exception of more SHBs (in both hives) than I have ever had.  But I'm on it with several bait traps and pans under the screens.  They're dropping like flies.

I was very happy to find the queen! 

The new colony is noticeably calmer than my big hive.  The big hive has been in my yard for five years and is packed solid with bees, so they get pushy.  I am building two new brood boxes tomorrow, one as a replacement for the big hive and one for to have a spare. If I see their queen when I move the frames, she is outta here! 

Still fun!

[jayj200]

Sun
at our meeting Ann (I don't remember) told us to get bar coasters (only) 3 drops of wintergreen oil.
placed on top of the top brood frames one coaster per hive 3 drops per coaster.

more than that and you will run the bees out too