How To Remove Bees From Trees Or Houses

Every beekeeper is likely to be called upon to remove bees from unwanted places. Stray swarms often enter openings in the walls of houses, churches or hollow trees where their presence causes annoyance.

If the bees are to be destroyed, it is only necessary to blow the dust of cyanogas into the opening and close the cavity tightly. After an hour or two, the cavity may be opened to remove the combs and what honey may be there.

To save the bees, however, is not difficult although it requires some time to trap them out. A platform should be erected on a level with the opening on which to place a new hive to hold the colony. Care should be taken to close every possible means of access to the cavity in which the bees are located except the one through which the bees make their principal flight. Over the flight hole, place a bee escape which permits the bees to come out but prevents them from returning again. In the new hive place about two frames of brood and fill the balance of the space with drawn comb or full sheets of foundation. If possible provide this nucleus with a laying queen or ripe queen cell.

Since the bees which leave the cavity in the tree or building are unable to return, they will join the nucleus and if the trapped colony be a strong one, it will build up very rapidly. The field bees will all be out within a few days, but emerging brood will continue for at least three weeks and sometimes longer if there are ample stores to encourage the queen to continue laying as her field force deserts her. Some attention is necessary to insure plenty of room for the bees which have taken up their new abode in the hive. At times it is necessary to add supers to provide sufficient room.

It is always best to trap out such bees during a light honeyflow to insure favorable conditions for making the change. When sufficient time has elapsed to insure that normal activity has ceased within the cavity, the bee escape may be removed to give the bees access to the honey that may remain. If they are getting but little new nectar from the field, they will quickly remove the store to the hive which by now they recognize as home.

I have known such cases to yield as much as 100 pounds of surplus honey by the time the trapping is completed. Such a yield should be enough to pay all costs of equipment for the new colony.

How To Stop Robbing

Once robbing is started it can easily result in disaster in the apiary and it is important to check it at once. If it is well advanced when discovered it is difficult to stop and sometimes the best plan is to reduce all entrances to other hives near the one being robbed and permit the bees to finish the job. In such a case the loss may be confined to the one hive.

If the robbed hive is removed without putting another in its place, the bees will at once attack other colonies and the trouble may spread to become general. If the entrance of the robbed hive is reduced to a very small size, the bees may be able to defend it better and perhaps overcome the robbers. A forkful of hay spread over the hive to make it difficult for the robbers to reach the entrance will also be helpful. Sprinkling carbolic acid over the front of the hive will often check the robbing if it has recently started.

A common practice is to carry the robbed hive into a dark cellar and place another hive with combs containing a little honey in its place. When the robbers have finished cleaning up the combs and are unable to find more honey, they often settle down without further disturbance. When robbing is active it is not a good policy to take away the colony under attack without putting another hive in place to convince the bees that they have secured all honey available.