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This was the first of two removals today. Great bees – but too close to Laura’s cement pond 😉 Scooped the queen in probably the first handful that I grabbed from the cluster after pulling out the comb. They all moved into the box today, and will head to the bee yard (or an observation hive) soon.
A trapout is an option for honeybee removal from a tree or structure. This short 11-minute video shows the process of a trapout that was started on 6-7-2015. Depending upon how many bees are in their colony, a trapout can take up to 6-8 weeks to complete.
This swarm arrived on a back porch around 1pm today. By 6pm when I got the call – there was a sizeable cluster on the outside of the trash can – as well as some on the inside. Scooped them into a nuc, and found the queen after a few minutes. It took a few minutes for them to settle – and they are now in a 10-frame hive and adjusting to their new home. These bees had just moved into this compost bin in the last 2 days. There were three small pieces of comb, and eggs as well as pollen in the comb. The compost bin had heated up enough after the sun shone it’s light on it – that the comb melted and fell into the compostable materials.
I spent the first half of today with a great team of individuals that are committed to assisting Texas residents with agriculture – whether it be in the form of commercial agriculture, or backyard gardening – and all stages in between.
My freshly built observation hive was also brought to show off a frame of bees to the public. The event is over, now – however, here is a link to the event information: Garden 2 Table – Texas Agrilife Extension Also watch for an article in the Dallas Morning News in the next few days about the event – as well as photos.
Old dead tree with almost completely hollowed out inside. FILLED with bees. Appx 10 lbs of bees were gathered from this tree. Bees were flying EVERYWHERE at the beginning – however settled down nicely after a puff of smoke. Plenty of eggs, larvae, and brood was saved from this tree. These will be some great bees for the bee yard.
I do not think that in 45 years, I have ever seen as much rain as we have received here in North Texas over the last two months. Too much rain can be detrimental to our agriculture. Besides the obvious problem of erosion of our topsoil, there are other problems with too much rain. When rain falls over fields of blooming flowers, it can wash out the nectar from the flowers, leaving hungry pollinators. Generally at this time of year, the bees have an excess of nectar that they are bringing into their hives. But with a shortage of nectar, there is a serious possibility of starvation. Yes – even with all the rain and flowers… that does not mean that there is available nectar for them to forage upon. Below are pictures of bees that swarmed recently to a crape myrtle tree. They settled on a branch about 5′ off the ground, and sat long enough to build 2 smallish pieces of comb under their cluster. The homeowner called and I responded within the hour to remove the swarm from their back yard.
A neighbor took some good photos whilst I was removing bees from the downed tree last Sunday evening. They were pretty defensive to start with – but as soon as I puffed a little smoke – they settled down. No tags taken, though the homeowner had taken a few earlier in the day. They are now recovering in the bee-yard. Another beekeeper was called – and he referred them to me for the removal. (and yes – it was a mess in there since the limb/trunk had fallen about 12′ to the ground – so I donned the rubber gloves for the honey mess) The comb, while BEAUTIFULLY filled with the queen’s brood – had all been crushed in the fall. So – unfortunately, any remaining eggs/larvae was not salvageable in case the queen had not made it in the removal.
During today’s bee-class, we went through several established hives as well as a few hives that have been recently brought in from removals from people’s homes. Wall-to-wall brood! This beautiful queen has been hard at work – laying eggs wall-to-wall in her domain. This is going to be a great queen to be a source for larvae to graft into future queens for hive expansion.
These bees were living in a 16″ wide joist-space under the back porch deck at a local condominium. Unfortunately, it was an overcast and rainy morning – so while the removal DID go smoothly – the bees let me know that they were displeased with being exposed to the rainy elements today. They had a good amount of honey, and the queen is a beaut! Once the comb was put into the frames – the bees readily came into the box – and the queen was easily located.
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