# Can you smoke bees from a chimney?



## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

They will most likely stay and die. They will not leave the brood.


----------



## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

Think about *IF* the wax got on fire!!


----------



## riverrat (Jun 3, 2006)

wax fire is a good possiblility. also the flue may be plugged enough it might not draught right. Then it will smoke you guys out of the house


----------



## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

If they are in the chimmy flue, Fisher's Bee Quick might work, but be aware that it will also smell up the house pretty good for a few days/weeks.


----------



## Lucus76 (Mar 18, 2008)

there are more reasons against it than for it, and with your recent luck I wouldn't try it.


----------



## Fuzzy (Aug 4, 2005)

I just refused such a job. But since I have been thinking more about it. 

Suppose that you were to direct a shop vac discharge up the chimney. Remove the filter from the shop vac, and spray Bee Quick into the shop vac intake while running ??

I am thinking that it would volatize well and chase the bees out pretty quickly. If one thought ahead you could build a screen box above the chimney to catch the exiting bees.

Might work... Have NOT tried it yet. -- Fuzzy


----------



## JP (Jul 10, 2005)

blkcloud said:


> I had a lady call about a removal from a chimney, 2 1/2 stories up very very steep roof, higher than a extension ladder can reach..Could I build a big smoky fire from old feed sacks and actually run them out or will they stay and die from the heat/smoke?? thanks!


My first question is how long have they been there? If you were even able to run them out and its an established colony, you are opening up other cans of worms, and I ain't talkin' fish bait either!

The damage is usually already done with established hives, all the components must come out.


...JP


----------



## Jim Fischer (Jan 5, 2001)

> Suppose that you were to direct a shop vac discharge up the chimney.
> Remove the filter from the shop vac, and spray Bee Quick into the shop 
> vac intake while running ??

The easier way to do this would be to plug the hose into the exhaust
port of the shop vac, and put a cloth soaked with bee-quick over the
end of the nozzle, attached by rubber bands.

But chimineys are a pain in the butt. The good news is that most of
a chimney is vertical, so there are a limited number of places for
comb to be attached.

A Bee-vac with a longer hose deployed from above might get the bulk of 
the bees out, and if one were paitient and lucky, one might even get the queen with a bee vac. Then the comb could be burned with some
gas and a match dropped down the chimney. A sort of controlled
blaze chimney fire.

Bottom line, sometimes the bees have to die when you are removing
bees from structures. Not every job can have a happy ending.


----------

