Bees under home we'd like to save...Help!?? Please??

[Bees In Miami]

A colony has set up under an outcropping on my brothers home in Mass.  He would like to save them, but obviously needs to relocate them!  He loves the bees, but we are afraid they will expand the hive in his home.  Is it possible they can grow into the walls?!  Should he allow them to remain, and relocate in the spring?  Remove now?  How do you move a wild hive?  PLEASE...ALL help is welcomed!  They would truly like to relocate to a hive or two they can have on site.  Any ideas?  At this time, the wild hive is below an outcropping on the house that houses their dining table .  Since the bees has obviously built hives from above(floor planks), how best to remove/relocate with the least bit of damage to the bees?  ANY help is appreciated!!!  TIA!!

[yelnifok]

hello bees in miami,If you have not captured a nesting colony before- I would advise you to search  on web for a local bee keeper who would be willing to do this. Keep in mind if you want to keep the bees on site you will need to either pay the beekeeper for his time/ and hive equipment(he will be providing). Or possibly agree to use your location for him to be able to leave bees at. If you want to keep the bees,you should chk. into taking a beekeeping course. There are a lot of keepers in fla. so it should not be to hard to locate. good luck. lee...

[AllenF]

I assume mass is massachusetts.   It is getting late for a cutout up there I can only assume also.   He needs to get the combs into frames asap.   And feed them, or see if they make it until spring, but out in the open, I doubt they will survive.   Is the entire hive exposed or just some comb?   Hard to tell about the hive without some pics.       

[yelnifok]

Sorry @ that- I completely read over "Mass." in my mind I was in miami, fla.- brain f@rt. I'm with allenf- the probably won't survive in the open this winter- providing housing asap/and feeding is in thier best interest of survival.lee...

[duck]

hrmm Ive had calls like this before.. hey I have a hive on the outside of house on the soffit.. you show up, and notice that the bees inside the wall have run out of room and are now building on the outside of the cavity.

[BlueBee]

OK, this is going to sound bad coming from a beek, but there is no shortage of bees and sometimes you have to put your home above a bunch of insects.  This late in the season really isn’t the best time to be trying to start up a couple of hives in Mass.  Yes, it’s possible with the help of a good beek, but the odds of success aren’t real great.  If you kill the queen in the removal process (covered with honey), the whole thing ends up to be a lost cause this late in the season.  Waste of your time and waste of the bees. 

If you really want to save the bees, I would wait until spring since they’re not really going to be building much more comb this late in the season.  So whatever damage the bees may have already done to your brothers home, isn’t going to get any worse between now and spring.  It will also be easier to deal with the hive in the spring because there will be a whole lot less bees and LESS honey in there to make a mess.  Plus if you screw up in the spring and kill the queen, the bees can make a new queen.

I would put my house above the bees, but of course don’t do something stupid like spraying them with raid because that will just result in an even bigger mess with all the honey sitting there under his house for the rodents to get into.