holy removal

[sean]

"Picture this, Jamaica, 2008. It is a warm sunny morning in a quiet rural district. Suddenly the morning quiet is shattered by an unholy humming/buzzing noise.... It is the hive from hell." (at least my version of it")

Ok folks started a cut out in a church this morning. Block and steel up to floor level and board thereafter. I had previously looked at it a couple days ago and thought that they(the bees) were were in the wooden structure. So, i went back this morning armed with my trusty hammer, a crowbar, my machete, smoker, queen excluder, old frames with wires missing, hive body(forgot the nuc) etc. oh, my sidekick as well(he does the hard technical work)I could hear humming from about 8 feet awayand began to realize with some trepidation that this hive was a bit bigger than i thought.

 Any way i began to smoke them and pry up the board only to discover that the bees were not in the wooden walls as previously thought but in the concrete foundation. By now i've been stung on the lip and its looking quite full and kissable. A crowd is gathering, i began to explain the situation and get the go ahead to remove the blocks. Took out about 3 1/2 feet of blocks and chunks of honey (some up to 3 inches thick) 9 frames of brood(more like 1/2 frames and there is still more honey. Didnt see the queen, so i just had to leave the box and hope that with the brood removd from the hive they will move over to the box. When i tried smoking them they would retreat into the foundation, so as i said i just left the box, i'll pick it up on friday. Oh. on my way home i remebered i had the vacuum with me. Hows that?

[Jerrymac]

My worst cut out was a church. Not the cut out itself but the bees were mean. They were swarming, or trying to, and I think they didn't want to be bothered. Like you I left the hive there for all the bees to get into it. I returned at night and what did I find?



Not a bee in the box

[Understudy]

One of the plagues of Moses was bees.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[JP]

There are never any guarentees when you place the queen in the box and leave it there she along with the colony will not abscond and leave no bees to cover the brood. This is not good, they could get chilled and die or parasites like shb can move in (this happened to me once). I can understand leaving if you don't have proper protection, but I hate the thought of the colony absconding off of their brood. My .02 is to try and stick it out if you can.

...JP

[sean]

well i went back on friday and... the bees had moved on, Lef the brood, eggs everything. One guy said hesaw them in nearby bushes the morning but when i reached ther they had gone.

[annette]

One of the plagues of Moses was bees.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Locusts I thought

[Understudy]

One of the plagues of Moses was bees.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Locusts I thought

Bees and flies plague four.
Locusts plague eight.

Sincerely,
Brendhan