How do I open this box?

[sawdstmakr]

Sparky
Thanks, I am expecting it to take 4 to 6 hours in 84 degree plus, 80% or higher humidity, with any luck. If not it will probably be raining or threatening to rain.

Mark,
This box weighs over 200 pounds, I have it on a strong wooden stand. It would be very difficult to support it from the sides, high enough up  and harder to get to the comb from the bottom. It is 2 ' tall.
But I appreciate the input.
Jim

[wayne]

  Since you are going to trash the box just get a sawsall, or a circular saw, and set the blade shallow.
  Cut a window and get a good look inside.
  Go from there for a normal cutout.
  Remember when you start cutting, the box looses strength and may collapse so have support under it.

[JackM]

Man I can imagine how the bees would pour out with the vibration from a sawzall.  Don't think I would do that.  Got a plasma cutter?  If one was careful enough you could probably get a good start with one without burning the bees.

[sawdstmakr]

  Since you are going to trash the box just get a sawsall, or a circular saw, and set the blade shallow.
  Cut a window and get a good look inside.
  Go from there for a normal cutout.
  Remember when you start cutting, the box looses strength and may collapse so have support under it.

Thanks, I plan to drill and screw in some I hooks and support it by rope to my work shop. I may also screw a piece of wood to the plastic just above the cut.
Jim

[sawdstmakr]

Man I can imagine how the bees would pour out with the vibration from a sawzall.  Don't think I would do that.  Got a plasma cutter?  If one was careful enough you could probably get a good start with one without burning the bees.

Jack,
I have cut a brick column, expecting the bee to react, but they didn't. The last removal we did we cut a storage shed floor. They didn't react until bees got  smashed into the dirt when we tried to pull up on one side and went down into the dirt. If you watch the videos of honey bee removal here on this site, you will see a lot of cutting with little reaction. I don't plan on suiting up but I may wear a vail during the cut and initial opening.
Thanks.
Today is the day, just waiting for daylight. The weather should be perfect. 83 degrees and 65% humidity, doesn't get any better than that during the summer around here.
Jim

[Intheswamp]

That's better temps than we're predicted for today.  Best wishes on opening the box....long as you don't have to call CSI when you see what's in the box you should be ok.

Have fun, take pictures, post'em here. 

Ed

[yockey5]

I will be looking forward to the pics!

[calrow99]

Double dittos with the photos or video....

[doggonegardener]

The suspense is killing me...

[sawdstmakr]

Alright, alright already. Here they are, if I can get this to work (second try).

Here is what we found when we cut out the side panel. On the left side I dug out a bag of sevin dust, yea the bottom was lined with very old dead bees. This hive has been here a long time. The electrasol bucket had very old bird seeds. There was also Black Cow and 2 different types of fertilizer.
URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/85/dsc03569ez.jpg/][/URL]

We then decided to cut the top off a little at a time. Most of the comb stayed in the box. This picture was taken after we removed all of the honey comb in this section.


We cut out the honey comb as we went and put it in buckets, about 6 gallons worth. Anyone want some Sevin Honey.  It is going to the dump. The section on the right is all brood.

Here is some of the equipment we used for this job.


Here I am at the cutting table putting the comb in the frames.


Uploaded with

We filled all 10 medium frames with brood.



Here we are collecting up the last of the bees. They kept coming out of the cracks, by the thousands, for hours. We started this job at 7:00 on Fathers day and didn’t quit until 4:00 PM.




Here is the other Jim, checking out a piece of comb.


Here is the comb imbedded in the trash.


Hope it was worth the wait.
Jim

[G3farms]

What a mess 

Looks like you did the best you could with what you had.

[doug494]

I'll ask.

Did you get the queen?

or

Do you think you got eggs with the brood and they can raise a new queen with those genetics?

[Intheswamp]

Nice job, Jim.  That was a nasty cut-out.  You're probably the only beek to have literally pulled out a bag of sevin dust from a feral colony!  Those have gotta be some heavy duty survivor genes in them bees to survive living in a toxic waste dump!

Hope they serve you well, you deserve it.
Ed

[sawdstmakr]

I'll ask.

Did you get the queen?

or

Do you think you got eggs with the brood and they can raise a new queen with those genetics?

I did not see the Queen though we spent a lot of time looking. I did get a half frame or so of eggs and all stages of young larva.

Thanks Ed.

Jim

[JackM]

Awesome mess.  Cool.  Somehow I thought it was a metal box.

[sawdstmakr]

Awesome mess.  Cool.  Somehow I thought it was a metal box.

That would have been a lot worse to get into.
Jim

[yockey5]

Worth the wait. Sorry ro hear of the sevin dust, though I doubt it had any effects on this colony.

[sawdstmakr]

Worth the wait. Sorry to hear of the sevin dust, though I doubt it had any effects on this colony.

You cannot see it very well, but the bottom was full of very old dead bees and decayed bees from years of exposure.

I looked under the cover last night just before sunset. We gave them a medium super with undrawn foundation and a box above that to allow for extra room for the bees we poured in with a screen top above that and of course the cover. There were thousands of bees hanging from the feeder section of the top screen board. We are planning on removing the empty super tonight before the place too much wax on the feeder.
Jim

[sawdstmakr]

Just an update.
I opened the hive yesterday. They started building wax in the super. As I went through the brood box, I found only capped brood. No eggs or open brood. I did find a swarm cell opened that was there when I opened the box. It was the only one that I saw while taking the hive apart, it was sealed, and wondered if it was alive. There may have been others that were mixed in with the hoses and other trash. I figured there must be a queen in this hive because it was too quiet for having lost a Q only a week ago. I learned how they respond from the Observation hive. I was on the last frame when my buddy, Jim, spots the queen on the side that was towards the box side. There were no eggs even where she was. She obviously is not mated so we closed it up and hope she works out. Keeping our fingers crossed. I won't be inspecting the hive for a couple of weeks to let her get established.
Jim

[Intheswamp]

Thanks for the update, Jim.  We'll be pulling for the lady...would be some interesting genes to have on hand!

Ed