These Bees Had Termites!

[JP]

This colony swarmed in about two weeks ago. I didn't get the queen but feel she may have been injured during the removal process and moved over and under the ceiling joist to the left of where they had built the combs.

I say this by how the bees showed great interest in this area. I waited hrs for her to come back out and group with the bees but she never did. I even put two broodcomb sections in deep frames adjacent to the area to orient the majority of the bees to, in hopes she would join them.

After roughly 3 hrs of very few bees showing interest where I deemed the queen to be I set a queen catcher on top the sheetrock ceiling and the bees flocked to it like Bud on a plate of fried chitlins!

Of course I have housed many different queens in this catcher before, and the bees were picking up that scent.

I eventually placed the catcher inside my medium set up with the 10 frames I had secured from the colony and 99% of the bees went into the medium, believing there was a queen inside of the catcher, marching in just like with the hightech box trick. I'd rather be lucky than good any day.

Btw, I checked the box carefully 3 different times and never found the queen nor any heavy numbers on any particular frame.

It was the queen catcher's scent that oriented the bees to the box set up, for certain. Oh well, I will check to see if they make a queen and requeen if they don't.

And very nice bees, btw. Oh, one more thing, if it were not for me removing the bees, the people would not have known they had a Formosan termite infestation. They will be in touch with their termite company very soon.


Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/April262008


...JP

[bud1]

shucks JP bees dont move that fast or agressivly

[JP]

shucks JP bees dont move that fast or agressivly

Yeah, you right Bud. I over exaggerated the bee's speed to make the event sound better than it really was. My bad.

We all know, there's nothing that moves faster than Bud on a plate a fried chitlins!!!


...JP

[Cindi]

JP, again, you got some pretty nice pictures going on there.  When does the season slow down for the cutouts and swarm catching down there, seems you're just going and going and going, hee, hee.  Have the most wonderful, best day, Cindi

[JP]

JP, again, you got some pretty nice pictures going on there.  When does the season slow down for the cutouts and swarm catching down there, seems you're just going and going and going, hee, hee.  Have the most wonderful, best day, Cindi

Cindi, it slows down when I decide it does, really. When the temps get way up there along with the humidity and this is late summer when the colonies have their greatest numbers and we're in a dearth, so the bees are not so polite then, I try and wait until spring, and I give a discount to those who will wait. Btw, I have no choice but to increase prices some when doing removals in 98F heat with 100% humidity. Remember, when its this hot, I still dawn the jacket and veil, and that makes things feel even hotter.

The 15yr old hive I removed on March 19, I think it was, the guy called me last April to remove them, but the room wasn't ready for me until August. He called me in August to remove them, 4 months later. I was like Dude, let's wait until spring, its blazing temps (big house, terrible ac/barely any really) the hive is at its largest, there's no flow on, and they're set to winter right where they are, besides they've been there for 14yrs already!! He was cool with it, and look how it turned out, just terrific.


...JP

[Understudy]

Another excellent lesson here, take pictures. not just because you can post them here and we will all enjoy them a great deal but when the homeowner calls complaining about the roof collapsing. You can show them it was termites and not bees.

Konasdad refers to this in legal jargon as CYA.

Sincerely,
Brendhan