Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => HONEYBEE REMOVAL => Topic started by: JP on July 18, 2007, 10:03:09 pm
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Hey guys, a lady has bees in her tree. The cavity starts at ground level and extends up into the tree, I am guessing 2 & 1/2 to 3', cause I can see bees on both sides of the cavity and some extending down from where I believe is the top ceiling of the cavity. The bees have been in the tree since last Thursday, July 12th. I think this to be fairly if not completely accurate since she has to pass the tree to enter the front door. We don't have much of a nectar flow right now, so I doubt there is much comb. The opening is not large enough to put my hand into and I don't want to use the bee-vac. I have used fischer's bee-quick before and was thinking of using it in this instance, to run the bees out and into a deep with some brood frames. I do lots of removals but not many on trees. My main question is whether the queen would leave and enter the deep with the rest of the bees. I haven't tried this before so I am looking for the best option. I haven't performed trapping before and in fact I e-mailed Iddee from Beesource and that's what he said he would do, (trap them out)but I think the bee-quick would work but I know queens can be difficult to leave once they have gotten established. I would like some feed back, especially from those who may have been here before. Thnks, Jp.
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If they have only been there a few days, you can push them back out with moth crystals or some other strong fume. The cavity isn't home yet so they will leave.
Just set the hive on a stool or what ever to get it level with the entrance. Hit it good with lemon grass oil and add a couple frames of comb for bait. Make sure they have an easy entrance to the box.
Put the crystals in a bag and push as far back as possible so they can get past it and out.
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With trees, soak a cloth with Bee-Quick, and rubber-band it over the business end of the hose
of a shop-vac. Plug the hose into the exhaust port of the shop vac. Now you have
a high-powered fume deployment system.
Use a hole saw to cut a hole opposite the entrance, at the far top or bottom "rear" of
the hive cavity (it may take several test drillings with a small drill bit to verify the
extent of the hive), insert the end of the hose, and turn on the shop-vac.
Works for me...
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And You have had experience with the queen leaving as well, Jim?