Late Season removal

[Boom Buzz]

I got a call today to see if I would remove a colony from a shed.  It is pretty late here to be doing removals but the owner is removing the shed completely whether the bees are saved or not.  He'd rather they are saved but the schedule is the priority and he is not willing to wait til spring.

My usual set up is one deep and one medium for the brood box and this is what I would overwinter them in.  Not sure yet how much brood comb I will find, but what I do find will go into a deep.  It turns out I can piece together a medium with ten frames of capped honey from some in storage and  from a strong hive.  Plus it would be reasonable to feed all the way into late November (not everyday necessarily, but most days).  So I will feed like crazy to hep them fill as much of the deep as possible.

What else should I consider to give them the best chance of overwintering?  Thanks for any advice!

John

[Lazy W]

Of course it goes without saying if you can get the Queen they will have there best chance, especially this late in the season. 

[iddee]

What size shed. Is it feasible to move the whole shed?

[sawdstmakr]

What size shed. Is it feasible to move the whole shed?

Or a wall?
Jim

[Boom Buzz]

I haven't been so good at finding the queen on removals, so there is room for improvement and maybe if I go slow and methodical I can't spot and catch her.  Will definitely do my best to locate her.

The bees are in under the floor board of the shed.  The shed is old and in pretty bad shape.  The owner plans to remove it completely.  But I don't think moving the whole thing with bees intact is in the cards.  I like the idea of just moving it or just the wall if that's where they were located.  However, I do have a funky top bar hive that is set up to take a medium frame.  I'll have to see what the comb layout looks like, but maybe I could just cut out the floor board to fit over the TBH and drop it on top!?  Then deal with it in the spring.  Thanks for the ideas.

[duck]

55 gallon drum cut in half, lay the floor over it, then a piece of tin over that, instant top bar lol..  probly not the best to winter in.  Im doing combines only for the next month.  I have already queened a few hives that were queenless with removal queens.

[JP]

I'll have to see what the comb layout looks like, but maybe I could just cut out the floor board to fit over the TBH and drop it on top!?  Then deal with it in the spring.  Thanks for the ideas.

The comb sections would have to fit perfectly but the problem you will likely run into is the weight of the colony. Depending on how long this thing's been there it could easily weigh 60lbs and upwards. I believe you will need to perform the cut out and take your chances.

Worse case scenario, combine them with another colony.


...JP

[Boom Buzz]

Thanks all for the thoughts and ideas on this one.  I went out today to do the removal.  In the process of clearing out debris and clutter to access the bees I found 9 cans of wasp spray near where the bees were entering.  The cans looked like they had been there a while, but I didn't like the looks of it.  So I bagged it and declined to do the removal.  The guy I have been dealing with just bought the property recently (out of foreclosure) and he had no clue they had sprayed before.  Oh well!

[wildforager]

Probably a wise choice. Sprayed bees + Late season removal = Deadout in spring.