Removal by trapping: Question number 2

[Dan163]

OK, so we have done the cone thing (from the thread below) and taken away most of the bees.  Unfortunately, we thought we had all of them and then the swarm turned out to be larger than we thought.

At this point, there is a broodnest about 12 feet down in the chimney and utterly inaccessible to us because of a bend and a narrow opening. They have few or no foragers and will starve in the next few months as there is already little forage left.  It is a sad thought, but nature will take its course.  (And, unfortunately, we did not get the queen who must be a real beauty to have produced this swarm and subsequent strong colony. Crying shame.)

I was thinking that I'd bring a nuc over and let them rob the remaining hive in the chimney, mainly so that the poor homeowners can get back to life as normal (they've been living with the bees for 6 weeks).  However, I am told that bees won't normally enter a space like a chimney, unless they are scouts for a swarm.  Not even to rob a really weak hive.

Any thoughts on this?  Is it worth bring my bees over to rob the chimney or is it best to just let the colony in the chimney die out on its own (and then let the chimney sweep do his thing)?

[Robo]

It should be no different than letting the bees you trapped out have access back to do the robbing.

When I do a trap out,  after about 4-6 weeks when the outside hive is established and strong and the inside hive has dwindled down to just about nothing,  I remove the cone and let the outside hive rob out the inside hive before I take them home.

Late fall is prime robbing time, but not swarming time.   If I leave my garage open, I get tons of bees getting into everything looking for sweet things,  and I know they aren't scouting for swarms.  I don't buy it that they won't rob out the chimney.

[Understudy]

Okay, You have something going for you here if you can work it right. I am not there so I don't know. We smoke bees all the time when we go into the hive. Now you get to conduct an experiment. Light a fire in the fireplace. Not a big one. One that will generate smoke a lot of it. What we want the bees to do is abscond. You can try to force them into a hive at the near the top of the chimney but I don't think that will work. I would say set up swarm traps about a mile or so away and if you can watch where they go.

Number one rule is doing this:
#1 Patience.

This won't happen quickly but when it does it happen it will be so fast you will have a problem keeping up.

Sincerely,
Brendhan