# removed wild hive, need help



## Santa Caras (Aug 14, 2013)

Over in Central Florida we are on the tail end of a nectar flow. I say tail end cuz it's been going on for awhile and no telling zactly when it will end. The bees dont seem to be flying in-n-out as frantically as they were a couple weeks ago. I've been seeing plenty of pollen coming in. a lot of the weeds and stuff are still in a fall bloom. allergies are kicking up a storm. (local honey only does so much!) I've seen some capped brood and larva in the hives...even a few drones but with winter right around the corner, She's not laying a lot. Packing away a bunch of honey tho!! Keep feeding 2:1 since our temps havent plunged much below 50. 
Did you get the Queen???


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

We don't know if we got the queen. There were three layers of comb running length wise on the 2x4. The second layer in is where we found the eggs. 
We cut comb to rubber band it to empty wood frames. We ended up with their comb, new foundation, their comb rotation, set up in the boxes. 

We think we got her, just because of the way they are acting. After we removed the comb we had a huge ball of bees the next day, back in the laundry room, those we gathered up in a bag tossed into the top of the hive. Then the next day we removed more dry wall, next stud over a tiny bit of comb and a huge ball of bees, the next stud over, another ball of bees, no comb. We put a plastic bag below the ball and just swept them into it. Opened the hive box, tossed them in, they stayed this time. All seems as normal as a hive can be.

My concern is the lack of pollen in the hive, lack of capped honey. 

Our hives in Maryland had over 60 lbs of honey in them when we left to come down here. I can see our maryland bees on our cameras, it is warm there, right now, i.e. 70 yesterday, they are flying. I know there is minimal to nothing out there to eat. Temps diving to 40 in the next few days.

The bees are busy, but I do not see a lot of pollen attached to the legs. So we were trying to figure out if we need to feed them some pollen too, a substitute. 

We are going to leave them alone for a few weeks then take a look into the hive, see where they are at. 

We are sitting in the high 70's, 80 for the next week, lows of mid 60's down here, so they are flying out a lot, just not sure what they are finding to eat.


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## IAmTheWaterbug (Jun 4, 2014)

missybee said:


> Our renter had bees in a laundry room wall


Wow! How long did it take them to notice this? Didn't they smell or hear anything?


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

IAmTheWaterbug said:


> Wow! How long did it take them to notice this? Didn't they smell or hear anything?


She noticed mid September that there were bees around the water spigot, then early October someone came over and told her there were bees in the wall. There is no smell from them, the entry was outside of the room so she was not bothered by them. She had no problem waiting for us to come down to take care of the bees rather than kill them off.


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## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

I picked up a small swarm 10 days ago up here in the FL panhandle. I had the luxury of being able to add some brood frames with honey and pollen to their nuc. Weather is a little colder up here (dropped to freezing the night I grabbed them) but I have seen them bringing in some additional pollen...adding a pollen patty couldn't hurt. Maybe some local keeps can assist. Good luck.


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## John Davis (Apr 29, 2014)

I would take a quick look in after a week. Just enough to make sure that they are keeping the combs straight in the frames. It is easier to correct the sooner you catch it. Also gives a quick look for eggs or larvae. A small amount of pollen sub may be a good idea, if they don't use it up fast it may attract hive beetles.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

Ok will look in a week. I didn't think of them not keeping the comb nice and straight, it was pretty when we put it in. We still have some comb from the wall, but a bee keeper in Maryland said to do one frame their comb, one frame foundation. 

The wall hive had no hive beetles, really clean looking nice bee work, but in the wrong place lol. 

I had only one hive beetle in our maryland hive, we put the hives on a tarp, covered with gravel. We also used nematode treatment. nematodes love to eat grubs.

They have a bunch of work to do, to draw out the frames with comb, bring in food for the winter etc. I fed my Maryland bees a whole bunch of sugar to get them ready for winter, all new nucs this summer. We started feeding them in August. Up in Maryland there is a very short nectar flow. 

We are going to head to costco to pick up a 50 lb bag of sugar so we can feed feed feed.

I do have a one lb container of bee-pro from mann lake, trying to figure out how to use it. I found some post on this site about mixing 2/1 syrup with the bee pro to the consistency of play dough.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

There were a whole bunch of drones, they have not been kicked out for winter yet, down here.

Here are our Maryland hives, the green foam board is our wind break.


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## Santa Caras (Aug 14, 2013)

missybee said:


> There were a whole bunch of drones, they have not been kicked out for winter yet, down here.


Nope...Couple my hives still had em in there last week. I havent had the chance to over winter down here so they may never completely leave. 
Not for sure but I doubt they'll be doing much wax building until spring so probably have to keep those bands on. Just courious..how long was that comb? 
Looked to be about 2-3' maybe??


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

The comb was 4.5 feet long, three layers. The second stud over had around 4 inches brand new comb, pretty white with just a little nectar in it.


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## philip.devos (Aug 10, 2013)

missybee said:


> There were a whole bunch of drones, they have not been kicked out for winter yet, down here.
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 14522


Over here in Baltimore (about 50 miles east of Frederick, MD) I saw drones going in the hive today. Cold is coming tonight. Don't figure to see 50 degrees for a few days, so Drones' days are short.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

philip.devos said:


> Over here in Baltimore (about 50 miles east of Frederick, MD) I saw drones going in the hive today. Cold is coming tonight. Don't figure to see 50 degrees for a few days, so Drones' days are short.


We are going to be in the lows of 20's highs of 40's for the next 4-5 days, if not longer and some snow coming. Not there to watch for drones flying, bees were still flying today via our camera feed.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

update, our new wall hive, now in a deep box is doing great. 

We found the queen, have eggs brood etc. Still a small hive, like the size of a 4 frame nuc, but growing.

We did have a robbing issue I am going to post some photos of the bees that were robbing to see if anybody knows what they are.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

That queen is a real fatty! lol
Sounds like the removal went real well.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

Since this was our first attempt, no clue on how to do it, we were pleasantly surprised to find the queen, eggs brood when we checked.

We had bees flying and falling everywhere. Never did see her during the removal. Did not even see her when we looked at the frame, but did find her on the photo. 

It is a very calm easy to work hive. When we check them we do not even smoke them. 

Yesterday during the robbing they were angry, can't blame them. My poor honey was stung x3, he does not even turn red. We were not suited up, just trying to do an emergency blocking of the bottom board opening.


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## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

its great when you can salvage a hive.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Is there any worker brood? That's all drone brood in the pics.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

JRG13 said:


> Is there any worker brood? That's all drone brood in the pics.


We think so, we are into the 6th week since we pulled the hive from the wall, have a great collection of workers.
When we pulled the hive from the wall, most of the comb was empty, a very small amount of capped honey. Small amount of capped brood, one section with eggs. 

It appeared to be a newish swarm in an old wall hive.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Honestly, I would put some foundation in there to establish more proper sized worker brood, there's a lot of drone comb/honey storage comb in there.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

We have their comb,then empty foundation alternating in the hive. Right now we are hoping they survive this robbing. A constant battle, only one small bee size hole for them to protect. I see dead bees every day, it is so sad.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

I hope they make it too. I've never seen anything else but yellow jackets try to rob out a hive (excluding other honeybees), so I hope they can make it too. That black bee looks like it would be good at robbing since it's probably smaller too.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

We were just talking about the hive. I think we will block the only entry hole in the hive, trap the bees in for a day, maybe two, see if the robbers go away. They have a screened bottom board, plenty of air flow, we are feeding them, they won't starve lol

Not sure if it will work, but why not try.

We just read, draping the hive with a wet sheet for a few days, will allow the bees in the hive to leave(says they find a way out), but not allow the robbers to get into the hive. They say leave it for a few days. (internet search) we are thinking of trying that.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

Well sad news, those black bees, Rusty id's them as old worker honey bees, killed off enough of our small hive that we lost it.

We had decreased the entry to just one hole, covered them with a sheet, moved the hive 75 feet. Stopped the robbing. We had checked the hive, did a quick peak not wanting to bother them so they could recover from the robbing. They appeared to be doing ok.

We went into the hive yesterday, there was just a hand full of bees left and that horrible hive beetle had moved in since our last check. We cut out all the comb with larvae, tripled wrapped it in garbage bags, throwing the comb away. Tore down the hive. We will take the frames etc back with us to Maryland and use it. Right now the empty wood frames are wrapped in plastic, they will be set out in the freezing weather up there.

What a learning curve, we now know even more about bees, robbing, hive beetles, and how easy it is to move a hive from a few feet to xx feet away.


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## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

dang.


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