capturing bee colony in a garage wall

[john]

I have a friend that has honey bees in his garage wall, and they enter in and out through a knot hole in the outside. He says there is honey seeping out of the top of his window on the inside. I am thinking of trying to get this colony for myself some how. Can I do this? How would I go about getting them out of the wall and into a hive?

[Robo]

The best way would be to rip open the wall and remove the brood comb and rubber band it into empty frames.  If you can make up a bee vac ahead of time it makes the job that much easier.

If you can't rip open the wall, then a screen funnel over then entrance is your best bet.  Place a hive near the screen with a caged queen.  Better yet, have the screen funnel lead into the hive.

I have made a hive specifically for such a situation, by cutting a 4 in hole in a super, installing a 12" piece of PVC pipe with the screen funnel inside.  I simple take the hive and prop it up/hang it so that the PVC pipe covers the entrance.

[Archie]

John

Take wire screening and form it int a cone..  at the base of the cone cut flaps so you can attach the cone to the area around the hole the bees are using to enter and leave the building.  on a ladder or something similar and stable, place a hive with the small end of the cone pointing to the hive entrance.  I you have any frames with comb and or brood, but a couple of frames into the hive.

Leave this in place for a couple of weeks.  the bees will be able to leave the building but with the cone, they will not be able to get back in.  just like a minnow trap.  

the bees will adopt the hive and set up housekeeping.  after a week, you should place a caged queen in the hive.

you will not be able to get all the bees out of the building. the queen and some of the workers will stay in there.  

When you feel that you have all the bees out, remove the cone and plug the hole.  just be sure they do not have another entrance somewhere.

Good   luck.

Archie

[eivindm]

He says there is honey seeping out of the top of his window on the inside.

Just remember that as soon as the bees are gone, there are no bees ventilating
their old nest, and thus you could see a lot more honey as the temperature arises inside.  If you consider this to be bad for the garage, it's probably better to rip up the wall and remove the comb (and use it with rubber bands as Robo says), and then seal the wall so there won't be any new bee colony there.

Haven't been into removing bees from walls, but I have seen a lot of warnings about melting honey causing a lot of damage.

eivindm