# Bees moved into my wood duck house



## Sandburz (Jan 18, 2017)

Hello

I'm new to the forum and am looking for some advice on a unique opportunity with bees that moved into a wood duck house. They built several rows of comb before dying out. Several hundred are in the bottom of the box. Don't know if they froze or starved or it's just too cold to move yet. Will others return to this site if I leave it alone? If so, I'll have to modify the box to keep the wood ducks from moving back in(usually in march). Thanks for any input!


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## swarmtrap (Jan 14, 2017)

hello and welcome, how big of a duck house is it?


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome! You will quite likely get more bees in the spring or summer.


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## Sandburz (Jan 18, 2017)

Thanks for the reply. The duck house is 12x12x24" w/a 2" entrance hole near the top.


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## Thomas Frazier (Aug 25, 2015)

We had a very similar situation occur 5 years ago -virtually identical. It was a swarm that moved in - we were fortunate to be out in the yard when it happened and could watch the whole process. It was too late in the year for them to make a go of it. But we read up on beekeeping over the winter, and bought our first proper hive and a package of bees the next spring.

So if it interests you - if you've been "bitten by the bug" as it were - browse this site, google up some supplier websites (Dadant, Brushy Mountain, many others), order in some free catalogs, and see if you can find a local beekeeping club.

Cheers!


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## swarmtrap (Jan 14, 2017)

i'm no expert but i think i would clean the comb from the duck house and put at least a couple swarmtraps in the area. i'm a firm believer theres no reason to buy bees when theres so many swarms every spring thay made it through the winter, and with that, good luck.


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## Duncan151 (Aug 3, 2013)

That is cool, I put up two wood duck houses, so far no wood ducks, or bees! LOL 

I do not think that they are quite big enough to keep bees in, but who knows what bees are thinking


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

I have a duck box that has been occupied three different times by swarms over the last six years. The swarm usually last a year or two before dying over the winter. Definitely a good location for one or more swarm traps.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

Sandburz said:


> Thanks for the reply. The duck house is 12x12x24" w/a 2" entrance hole near the top.


I have done a couple of cutouts from wood duck boxes, but the entrances were considerably larger than that. The size box you describe (56 liters) is a little larger than a typical swarm trap.


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