# Cut out tomorrow.



## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Wish me luck! a 3 inch thick carpet of bees covered the front of the guy's house a couple of days ago. By the time I went home and got a suit and a cardboard box for the swarm, it was a bridge of bees moving from opening A to opening B. No queen in the bridge.

I'd upload a pic but I'm having trouble. It's always an illegal file type even though it is a jpg. I have a lot of prep to do tonight. I shot the pic up to photobucket if the link works.


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## enchplant (Apr 10, 2011)

I know this is gonna be a good one for you. You are so determined!


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

Good Luck Gypsi.

cchoganjr


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Best wishes on the cut-out, Gypsi!!! See...there *are* still bees around you!!! 

I'm curious about the three different sealants that I see. Looks like three attempts at sealing the cracks for either weatherproofing or bee-proofing. 

Do you think that when the swarm first arrived that they took up residence in "Apartment A" and then decided "Apartment B" was a better home??..I bet the scouts that picked "Apartment A" are catching the dickens from their co-workers. I can hear'em now..."Shirley!!! How could've ya'll missed "B" by only a foot? I mean, you send us to this cheap dump that the spiders wouldn't even stay in!!! And only 12 inches over there was a nice place...dry, nice maze of romex, and twice the space!!! Hey Val, whadoya think...think Shirley's getting a little fat in the hind end?...You ain't been slacking off on us, have you Shirley?....drats, and we've gotta all do the six-foot shuffle again. I tell ya Shirley this is the last time we listen to you!!!!...."


Ed


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## Bee Bliss (Jun 9, 2010)

Well, in all fairness to Shirley, I think they said something about some drones "not asking for directions!" LOL :lpf:


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

The homeowner put that yellow foam on last winter knowing there were bees hoping it would end his problems. At least it wasn't bug spray. We got 4 inches of rain the day before their big move, so I think the drone that directed them to apartment A really messed up and got them flooded.

I'm off, just touching up truckloading. Luck.....Maybe there will still be bees when I get there.


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Bee Bliss said:


> Well, in all fairness to Shirley, I think they said something about some drones "not asking for directions!" LOL :lpf:


Come on Bee Bliss, be real....if they'd asked the drones for directions they would've all ended up at the local DCA...you know the one track, philandering minds those drones have the reputation of having!!!!!


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Gypsi said:


> <snip>so I think the drone that directed them to apartment A really messed up and got them flooded.
> 
> I'm off, just touching up truckloading. Luck.....Maybe there will still be bees when I get there.


Why is it always the guy's fault. Marty only mentioned that it looked like a nice place. The other guys put him up to it because it was closer to the DCA.

I don't believe in luck so I'll say best wishes. Looking for a good report tonight. 

Ed


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

It's over. Pics to follow. Less than 5 gals of bees, comb and honey including the brood chambers. Not keeping any honey for me, I think the hummingbird feeders contributed to their survival, based on the thick red "honey" at the very top of the combs. The fresh thin nectar was obviously just that. 


I pulled out the extra bottom board and screen so they are all in one stack now. I put an extra super on top, put a dinner plate on top of the frames, and put all the comb and honey and bees from the bucket on top of the plate, so they can feed themselves. It takes more food to make comb than it does to make honey, and they sure need some new comb. Have to finish the removal tomorrow. I now have a beevac. I paid my guys to build it. Not fancy, but functional and not a killer vac, very gentle. I put together bottom boards, screen tops and frames until 3 am last night, then got up, loaded and ran.

I have to work in the morning, aquarium, then move stone with the guys, then go back out and get the rest of the bees. I also want to look in opening "B" just to be sure there isn't a new hive going in it. They act queen right, all clustered together on the bottom of the screen on the top box. The single box. They have varroa pretty bad, and those shb I saw may have moved with them. But the sunshine in my yard and the bees should take care of the shb. The varroa are my problem.

It was a blast! 

I need to get them healthy. The tip for the removal came from the church that wants a hive, so once they are healthy I believe these ladies are going to church. But it's all good. I've got bees!

Gypsi :banana:


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

my friend took pics on site but I don't have them yet
















They are BEES I hope I have the queen


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## cg3 (Jan 16, 2011)

Cool. Could you give us a blow-by-blow of the process?


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

:thumbsup: :applause:

Way to go Gypsi!!!!! I knew you could do it!

Do you think a powdered sugar dusting would knock the mites down to a tolerable level? I've read that regular sugar ran through a blender will go to a powder form and won't have corn starch in it. I'm thinking that something gentle while the bees are adjusting to the culture shock of moving to the Hilton from that dump Shirley took them to might be a good thing....don't want to throw to much at'em and run'em off. But, they may need something heavier...I'm sure someone with experience will chime in. 

Congratulations!!! Glad you have bees again!!!!

Ed


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

cg3 said:


> Cool. Could you give us a blow-by-blow of the process?


After I sleep, and after I'm finished. Opening A went into
The soffit. Opening B remains unexplored. Hmmmm.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

One thing we all noted: there were a TON of drones in this hive. And varroa so large on the backs of some workers that I could see them with my naked eye. Hopefully the break in brood will help knock the varroa back a little. Going to give them a couple of days to haul out the honey drowned bodies, and then I have to go in and add some more frames - those boxes had bundled comb rubber banded onto about 6 frames each. If I leave it alone too long, I will have a big mess. At that time I may dust with some powdered sugar, and change to an SBB with oiled plastic sheet under it. The hive is acting queen-right today, so even though I didn't see the queen, I think she is in there. They have found the fish pond and are running over there for water, doing housekeeping according to the front landing board.. 










The odd thing is, the bees at the house are just carrying on about their business too. And they still appear to be going in the house. Opening B is sounding like an entirely separate hive. Now there were a lot of queen cups on the comb, and a part of the queen rightness of the cutout may be that one of them is about to hatch? Or there were 2 hives.

I am exhausted, between aquariums, ponds and bees, so I will revisit the house I took the bees from on Sunday evening. With a keyhole saw, pry bar and reciprocating saw. Something is up in opening B.

On the step by step for what we did - tapped on the wood soffit behind the gutter, heard bees, observed bees coming out, used smoke, and started prying off the 1x4 framing the soffit, popped down the bottom board, and looked in from the bottom of a beehive that had been flooded when the gutter ran over the day before the big swarm. We removed comb gently into buckets, and my other friend took photos until we had enough comb for him to start rubberbanding it on to frames. 3 medium boxes with about 6 frames each. Not really enough bees to totally cover, and that wasn't all brood. With red honey, I sure wasn't harvesting it for my use, we rubberbanded honeycomb onto frames. There was brood on the perimeter of part of the stores, white, large, I didn't check for purple eyes, because when we trimmed to fit in at least one place, we were cutting through brood comb. A bread knife is the best tool to cut with. 

My friend the exterminator is pretty sure that a swarm took off on Wednesday, and based on what we got, and my customer's description of the number of bees carpeting the front of his house before I got there Wednesday, it was a big swarm that left. The possibility exists, with that many queen cups, a different swarm went into opening B, and that is the one I interrupted? 

Will find out tomorrow evening. When everyone is at home.. 








The bees carrying on routine business. I really missed my bees.

Gypsi


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Expanded view of the house. Hole B goes up into the soffit running at a 45 degree angle UPWARD. And they are still going in and out. Bet I need a taller ladder.


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## cg3 (Jan 16, 2011)

Very nice.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Hmmm....

You know, it would seem odd, but I'm almost tempted to believe that "Shirley" may have been leading the SWARM to hole "B." I know, according to lore, swarms always go a least a couple hundred feet before settling on a new home, but I've seen old (before queen-rearing and "making splits" came into vogue) "devices" for directing swarms into a new box that was only 1-3feet away. Wouldn't it be kinda funny to remove the mother hive and the new, swarm hive, from the same house? lol

Also, if there *is* a queen in your hive boxes, and there are *live* queen cells too, I'd be concerned about the potential for an "afterswarm" to take off from your new hive on you. Might be worth poking around in there and either checkerboarding the brood, or doing an "artificial swarm" by moving the queen & a bunch of workers to a new box. You could always "newspaper combine" the 2 hives a few days later (after eliminating one of the resulting queens) if you'd rather keep 'em as one strong hive, rather than 2 weaker hives.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I caught my own swarm last summer in a box a foot away from my hive. At least I think that is what I caught. 

Have 2 tons of rock to install this morning (with a lot of help). Hope to get home while it is warm and sunny, get these buggy ladies properly set up on my country rubes sbb with sticky board and in a deep, alternating their comb with plastic foundation in the deep, and the same in one or 2 mediums above. At that time I hope to get to see the queen. But they are certainly acting like their is one. Brood nest seems to be top box, north side. (the screen inner cover top I put on is a wonderful spy window.) A lot of the queen cells were broken, but not all. 
Will see what I see, and respond accordingly.

We are going to have good flow. Almost no feral bees left after the drought and the warm winter, I won't get fancy with a combine. Give them the stuff to let them build up, these hives have homes to go to that need bees. 

The inside of Hive A in the house.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Hive B may or may not have a queen, no brood, lots of timid little bees and about 4 combs of honey.








Hiding out up toward the roof peak, but there was no comb in there.









No brood either. I put a queen clip around either a drone or a queen. Had 2 wings on each side, biggest bee I saw, could be a big drone.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I think I had an afterswarm into my bee tree, but I think the queen in A killed the live queen cup I saw and reserved, with a frame of brood, in a top box. Saw ONE large white larva dead on the landing board this evening. I was going to run it over to my Hogan trap, which I had to reinstall yesterday. The bees resumed going through her house after I plugged the hole. The frame of brood should be enough, it's nice, capped brood. Wait, I needed uncapped didn't I? Oooops. 

Put some brood comb scraps from the bucket with brood in the hogan trap yesterday when I sent it back up. I'd kept it at a good temp and bees were guarding it, it was from Friday's removal of hive "A"

ayayaya I need dinner. It's almost 10 pm


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I just hope I got all the bees out. Part of them appeared to be heading into the attic when I left last night......Didn't see the queen from B either. But there were bees peeking through a narrow spot between 2x4's. More news tomorrow. 

Shirley's crew are captured. But did I get Shirley?


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## greg zechman (Nov 2, 2010)

Can we get an update?


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I don't know if I got Shirley. Her crew were robbed out by the first bunch I cut out while I was gone to work on Monday. (I got home from gathering bees sunday night 10:30). However, at last count from this cutout I have a nice full medium with queen laying brood, I just split off another medium (but divided bees, a queen cup and comb between 2 boxes), an occupied nuc swarm trap, and an occupied bee tree. The bee tree is problematic in that they get tired of me working in the garden in front of them they send out a guard bee or 2. Got zapped last Sunday. Going to mount a Hogan swarm trap on that. Was going to do it tonight but got in from work too late.

A member of my local bee club might have an extra queen or 2 on his order that are due in 4/17, I think I need some slightly improved breeding stock but am never home when the postman comes. They are not super aggressive, but very very swarmy. And they do have quite a bit of varroa and in the house they had shb. Have a SBB on the main hive, need to build several more. 

The homeowner is happy they departed. I sealed his house up pretty well, the original roomy hive cavity has about half a roll of unpapered Owens corning Pink shoved in. I closed the eave cavity with plywood, his brother does remodeling and home repairs and will be tidying things up. I got paid, I should have free bees for the church that referred him and the local beek that helped on both trips, I have a beevac, some experience, and I wouldn't be afraid to take on another one. Plus I'll probably get a lot more bees out of it. A worthwhile adventure.

Gypsi


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

It's good to hear a success story. Congratulations, Gypsi, good work!!!

Ed


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