Got a Call to do a cut out in a sofet today.

[Angi_H]

Well today I was sick with getting over the flu last night. So hubby stayed home. I still was not feeling well when he left to go get my son from school toutring. And I got a call for a guy that rents out a house in the next town over. He got my number from the Ag extension office. His tenits of one month have been having trouble with some bees in a sofet. I went and took a look this afternoon and they are about 12 ft up in an  old brick house. Where the wood had rotted and made a hole. They were very active and was allot of bees coming and going. Hopfully they have not made it into the attic space. The owner who lives down in southern Ca will be gone but he is having one of the maintnance workers bring the big extension ladder out for me to use as well as the tennits have one I can use that way hubby and I can pull the slats at the same time. I wont know the extent till we pull the boards off. We are to try to save as much of the wood as we can as that wood it old and is very hard to match the trim and what not. I am excited to see what the hive will look like. I am having hubby build me some extra frames so I can take a total of 3 hive bodys. But it wont be much trouble for him to run home to pick up more. As it is only about 15 min away from my house. Unlike the last time it was 45m to hr away. Can not wait to see how big the hive is as well as there was allot of bees coming and going. The tenits have gotten stung because the hubby has been up there trying to smoke them and spray them with the hose. They have only lived there for a month. So now when hubby goes out there the bees seek him out and stings him.  Should be interesting thats the truth. Wish me luck. I will let you know more on friday.

Angi

[Understudy]

Rule #1 Have Fun

Sure there is a lot of work involved but have fun with it.

Rule #2  Take pictures.

That endorses rule #1

Allocate a lot of time to do this. Don't rush.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Cindi]

Angi, good luck, you are jumping into beekeeping head over heels, hee, hee.  Look at that, you have had two calls to get bees, and you don't even have your bees yet, good for you.  Have fun with it, take your time, have the best of this wonderful and great day, Cindi

[JP]

Good luck and keep us posted, and yes take plenty of pics.


...JP

[Angi_H]

Hmmm Boy that was fast at moving it it is not even a removal yet. Nope not till tomorrow. Must just be me. NOt even sure if I will be able to do the removal. If they are in the attic it is no go.

Strange I sure say so.

[Robo]

Hmmm Boy that was fast at moving it it is not even a removal yet.

Angi,

You seem to be upset once again by the operation of the forum.  Let me try to explain again so there is no confusion.  I know you are under the believe and said someone told you that posts aren't moved to the removal forum until they are complete.  As I indicated before, this is untrue.  I asked you who told you this, but did not get an answer.  I would like to straighten this matter out with whoever told you this so others don't get confused as well.

Any post in anyway related to removals should be posted in the removal forum from the get go.  The only time a moderator moves a post is when the originator posted in the wrong form from the start (or a topic has drastically changed direction and is split).  There is no normal process that has posts start in one forum and moved to another.  Our moderators are volunteers and that would require to much time and effort to keep up on.

This is no different than people posting ideas or desires to build equipment in the plans and equipment forum before they have acquired or build the equipment.  Or even folks who post in the general beekeeping forum before they have bees.

I hope you understand how the forum operates and don't think you are being singled out (many of JP's post have been moved as well for being improperly posted).  I also hope you will share with me who mislead you to believe posting removal posts in the general forum until they are complete, so I can straighten that matter out as well (you can PM me if you prefer).

[beemaster]

Angie:

To stop this issue of POST PLACEMENT, I moved the removal forum to the TOP of the General section so it will be seen when anyone comes into General. This is going to have to be the only attempt to resolve this issue. Mods here are busy READING everything and don't need to repetitively move anyone's posts over and over again because they disagree on the placement or exposure of the posts.

I hope this helps, I'm not in favor of peeing contests in the forum, no one is showing any favortism toward anyone and this attempt to rectify this issue may not be permanent, but a worthy experiment. We all love to hear removal stories, see photos. etc., but we need structure or no one will find anything here.

[JP]

I always thought it was ok to post bee removal stories with pics in the general section and then they would be moved when the post was played out a bit. Didn't quite realize this was an issue, but I will hence forth post my stories in the bee removal section if that makes it easier on the volunteer mods. Sorry for any inconveniance on my part. The reason I did post in general is that the general section gets a lot of exposure, and I like exposing myself, well you know whadda mean. Get your mind outta the gutter will you? See ya'll in the removal section, and in general, for matters that need to be exposed there first, or do they?

...JP-ex bee removal in general poster. 

[Jerrymac]

The reason I did post in general is that the general section gets a lot of exposure, and I like exposing myself, well you know whadda mean.

[annette]

JP

We will follow you anywhere you are. We will find you.

Annette

[buzzbee]

Just make sure there is no overexposures on this topic guys!!

[JP]

Heehee, haw, haw, heehee.


...JP

[Frantz]

What section is it again where we expose ourselves???
hahahahahhahahahha!
I have a whole bunch of pics for that one... My wife is so sneaky with that camera..
I know, I know, I will go sit in the corner and think about what I said....
Frantz

[Cindi]

Frantz, you are bad!!!  Go and sit in that corner, hee, hee, corners are good places, have a wonderful and beautiful day, Cindi

[Angi_H]

Ok here are the pictures. Feels like there was about 80lbs of honey we pulled from the hive and still left them some. They had ventured into the attic which was not fun. They filled up to med supers. We had to toss allot of brood in sections that did not fit width wise and wound up with little sections not able to attach. For which I feel really really bad about it. After the first box of bees and brood looks like we had the queen as they stayed in the box and they were fanning there little butts in the air. I left them with honey and pollen for which  they had allot of as well. Man that stuff is hard to cut through. They had a few sections of comb that had crystalized honey but not much. And wonderful tasting and lots of new comb. I saw a couple of empty swarm cells that were old. So that have swarmed before. I had took 3 med supers and wound up with 2 frames of drone brood which they were not able to keep warm so today after we went back out and got the last of the cluster and combined them into there hive I tossed them. As they were very very cold and no bees around them. I knew since they were only 2 combs there that it was more then likely not going to make it. I hated loosing all sorts of brood with comb that had to be tossed because it wouldnt fit in small sections. We had several frames with brood hatching as well. Oh and tons of drones. Big ole fuzzy drones. My kids were playing with them on the ground. Still not a sting once. Hubby one time on his thumb because he forgot to put his other gloves on. Why when you want to get stung you dont. When they got home last night I left them alone. And today when I got back with the nuc with more from there hive it was eve and cool so they were not going any where. I added the other bees and removed those 2 brood and made it 2 med supers full. Added a pollen patty just in case of little stores and gave them sugar syrup and I will let them be for how long I am not sure. But I did notice that they had already built bridge comb between some of the frames. As I could only fit 9 in the box because of the way the comb was twisted. Oh and some of the honey comb looked like an x with a big section in the middle that one I almost dropped it was so heavy and a pain to try to cut out of there. Ok here are the pictures. Forgot to take some of the hive. I will when I go into it in how ever many days I should leave them alone. Oh and there was fresh eggs as well as varrious stages of brood.


















Here they are start to finnish. And about the post thing I dont remember but I was always seeing Jps and others posts stay there for days on end. And I always forget to go all the way to the top to go to the removal section as it is not in the main page of links.  It was not easy since it was not in site with all of the other board topics in the row. I need to use the KISS system otherwise half will not get read. I would not know how to do a cutout if all of them went right to the removal section as it took me a long time before I found out that the removal section was posts and not just a list of areas and who did them. Never knew there was posts there and that was where they went. I am still getting over the flu and then did this. I am tired hurting and cranky most nights because of the stuped dr not being there to refill my pain meds. I need my SOMA> I hurt all over after these last 2 days up a ladder. My feet and leggs and back is killing me. Now I have to crush and strain 80lbs of honey.

Angi

[buzzbee]

Great job on the cutout!!

[pdmattox]

Yes great job. That was a huge amount of comb and bees and what a bonus of honey.

[JP]

Angi. I'm very happy you were able to do that cut-out, excellent job! That is one beautiful and healthy looking hive. That is great ya'll were able to get all of that honey!

A ginzsu knife works great for cutting comb, wish I still had mine. You know the ones they advertise, that can cut through cement and are still sharp after that, to cut a tomato slice, so thin you can see through it?

One little tip if you don't mind me saying. When you remove board sections, try and make your cuts right on the midline of joists or studs if its a wall, or adjacent to these members, so when the large sections are put back, they can be easily nailed right back in place. Hope you don't mind me pointing this out, not trying to blemish your fantastic post, trust me.

Angi, in reading your post, you sound like you have been doing removals for yrs! You got it down girl, you go! I would agree that it did seem like you got the queen.

Sometimes you don't have to see her to know you got her, because the bees will, at least the vast majority will congregate where she is. If you have a mass of bees still in a wall or ceiling, etc... it usually means you didn't get her.

Fantastic job!

...JP

[Understudy]

A great job.

Keep an eye on the hive.

Look at all the wisdom you gained for the next one.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Cindi]

Angi, wow!!!  A job that you have taken on, you passed with flyin' colours, beautiful and wonderful, yeah!!  I still think you are nuts (and so is everyone else doing this stuff).  I wil only think that I will stick to catching swarms hangin' off trees.  I take my hat off to you all that perform these staggaring cutouts.

Angi, I am so sorry that you are just getting over the flu and you went and still did this huge amount of work. I wish you health was better, and that you pain meds were being filled properly. I do not know what chronic pain is, I experience pain when I hurt myself, or my back is a little bit tired, but I have no clue what continual pain must be like.  I have nothing to compare to.  I hear of people all the time here with their ailments and pain, I thank my lucky stars when I read of these things that I don't have any, I am so grateful for that.  Pain is awful.

So, Angi, carry on.....there is no great hurry to do the crush and strain.  Take your time, honestly, let yourself heal for awhile first.  Then pick a good day when you can work like a dog to get this chore done.  Take your time, really, there is not a hurry in the world with this part of the joy of the cutout.

The pictures were lovely and for a first time doing this type of work, you performed like an Ace, excellent, I take my hat off to you girl, and go, girl, go!!!!  You made me proud of you!!!  Have the most beautiful and wonderful day, take care of yourself and health.  Cindi

PS, it was fun to hear of how your children were enthralled playing with the drones, your children must be happy their Mom did a good job too!!!!