# Zen bee trapout - forced abscond?



## wildforager (Oct 4, 2011)

Wow, what a tough job. Whatever you do, once the bees are out you're going to have to do a really good job plugging up that hole. The comb inside will attract stray swarms indefinitely. It sounds like you won't be able to get it out when your done. 

As for your strategy to remove them I think you're on the right track with the with the bee go. But don't burn it, you could be creating something really toxic, to the bees and yourself. I would just stuff some heavily soaked paper towels of bee go on the back side of the hive and wait out front with a bee vac. Hopefully there is power at the site. You could add some smoke if you need to up the intensity. Just a note, bee go works best on hot days and it would be good if you had a fan behind it to blow it in.

Good luck,
Little John


----------



## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I'm thinking a combination of smoke on the inside and beevac on the outside just might do the job, then fill the cinderblock with greatstuff foam, and caulk the exterior opening so the bees don't go back in?


----------



## wildforager (Oct 4, 2011)

I've tried greatstuff foam with bees, they chew right through it.


----------



## opihiman911 (Sep 23, 2012)

I don't thing spraying bee go on a rag will work. The hive is up on the top corner or the door and the cubbyhole is 8' below it on ground level. I took a flashlight and mirror to see up inside but couldn't see the hive. it looks like the hollow cement tile was either partially filled in or just so much spiders, rubbish and bugs have filled it up over the years.

I have bee quick that I use and it is supposed to be natural organic, thats why I was thinking of maybe burning it with the smoke. I have an old bottle of vomit stuff that was given to me but never used it or for matter of fact ever opened it after the first and only time of smelling that S**IT.

What about injecting the bee quick into the opening but using long surgical tubing? I was afraid that if it got injected into the middle of the hive, half would go down and find their way to the cubbyhole opening and inside the building...which would be even worse situation.

Cory


----------



## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

If smoke drives them out, do you have a beevac? (I've also heard beequick doesn't work, right after I bought a bottle.)

And if great stuff won't work - I stuffed my cutout area with solid fiberglass - but I don't think that's going to stuff in a small hole well. I had a large opening. So what do you use?


----------



## wildforager (Oct 4, 2011)

Fiberglass is good. As for the logistics of the site, we might need some pics to be of better help.


----------



## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

pics and plenty of them would help immensly.
Maybe, again without seeing the entrance, you can build a larger base for your trap out cone and support it with 2x2 or 2x4 from a more stable surface?

FYI, supposedly Great Stuff has a new insecet resistant formula. Must taste like crap I'm thinking.


----------



## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

I have had sucess with only one attempt to smoke and Bee Go, to get all the bees and the queen. It worked on a hollow column on a front porch of a church, but other attempts failed, and I have not tried it in several years. You will likely get enough to kill the remainder of the colony that stay behind, but not real likely to get all the bees and the queen to come out. Could happen, and you don't have a lot to lose if you try, and see what happens. So given the parameters of your situation, I would give it a try. Nothing to lose. 

Most often the bees will ball around the queen, the workers will stick their heads in honey cells and just wait the smoke out. Cone with smoke and vac combination is likely the best situation, probably won't get them all, but will deplete the colony enough, that the remainder will die or be over run by Small Hive Beetles or Wax Worms. If Wax Worms invade, the comb will be such a mess that another swarm might not move in next year during swarm season. If not, and the comb is left intact, next year you could reasonabley expect a swarm to move in, if there is swarming activity in the area.

Good Luck.

cchoganjr


----------



## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I once (only once) got a colony with queen out of a cinder block wall using smoke and continuous banging on the wall with a metal object. My sweetie kept the smoke pumping in and I started bangining on the wall. First a few, then more and more. They swarmed to a nearby branch and were about the size of a small watermelon. We cut the branch and put it into a hive box. 

I am pretty sure the only reason it worked is because the colony had been in the wall for just a few days. Still, it was pretty cool and the hive has been a great producer. This happened at my son's house in my first year of beekeeping.


----------



## Monica (Jun 20, 2012)

I would use the great stuff to fill the cavity and use some steel wool to plug the entrance. You could let the great stuff flow out around the steel wool to hold it in place. Works for mice, so I doubt the bees could chew through that to get back in.


----------



## Bubbles (Jul 14, 2012)

A beek in Biobees used an unusual way of catching a swarm in a wall. See this link.
http://www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11881


----------



## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I like the great stuff/steel wool combination. I use steel wool, often by itself, or with a plastic or tin lid cover, to block up rodent openings. I think the combination would be perfect.


----------

