# Bucket-O-Bees



## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

Cleared the brush around this feral hive today. I'm completely new to beekeeping. Parents are hobby beeks. My intention is to cut this one out. It's a bit intimidating but I'm doing a lot of reading.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Honestly, that looks pretty difficult to cut out, probably easier to get them to move out by putting that bucket on top of a box of frames and putting empty supers around it then letting them move down, or once you find the queen has moved down shake out the bucket and call it good. I guess if you find it has some nice lobes of comb, it might be ok, but it looks like a real unorganized mess from those pics.


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## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

That's an interesting idea. Would there be any concern of the comb breaking and falling if it was tipped on its face? Would I make a temporary lid with a circle cut out for the bucket to force them down and out the primary entrance? How long would I expect to leave the bucket there?


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Yeah what he said! Just put your box of frames and foundation where you want your bees and put a cover on with a hole in the top and invert the bucket over it so the bees have to go thru the box to exit. The queen will move down sometimes so watch for brood and eggs in the box below and put a queen excluder under the bucket to keep her from moving back up. If she is downstairs after 21 days your bucket may have some drone comb but it will be time to take it apart to see what you have. Make sure when the bottom box you put under the bucket is full, you give them another! I wish I could find a bunch of those! Easy bees.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I think I would put the bucket UNDER the box I wanted them to move into. Put boxes around the bucket, fill the gap with shavings or charcoal brickets or rocks so they can not comb in the gap. Give them and entrance at the bottom of that box. Bees move up easier than down, IMHO.


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## billabell (Apr 19, 2010)

I think odfrank is right. I would make a round cover for the bucket (cardboard would work) with a say 3-4" hole in the center. Put that on the bucket tape it down as tight as possible. Put a hive box on top with frames and drawn comb or foundation and include a frame of open brood borrowed from your parents or other local beekeepers.


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## Tim KS (May 9, 2014)

What happens if you just cut a hole in a piece of plywood.....center it over the bucket and set a box with frames on top.....block any holes in the bucket and let them move up.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

^ that is what I would do and once the queen is up there drop a queen excluder under the box so she can't get back down


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

>What happens if you just cut a hole in a piece of plywood..

That would work well and you would not have to worry about the space surrounding the bucket as long as the bees had no access to it. 

You could also put the bucket on top of a box of combs and chase the bees down with a bee chasing chemical. Slap on an excluder once most are down.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

An inner cover with bee escape hole sound perfect for the job. The queen will move up in a week or so. Better and faster if you can hive them with drawn frames.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

I like odfranks idea, bucket below, hive box above, bees go up.

Once they start moving, if you want the honey, get it quick. Those darn hive beetles will take over. 
The honey we got from our wall hive was the best tasting I have ever had. 

As the bees move into the hive box keep the openings small. We made the mistake leaving too much fly in room, our small removed wall hive was robbed and wiped out. Maybe even just a top cover opening for them to fly in and out.


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## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

Gives new meaning to the term "Honey Bucket" Good luck, sounds like a fun project to play with


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## whiskers (Aug 28, 2011)

Does anybody think it would be better to keep the bucket on its side since thats how it was when the bees built this or is it better to put the bucket on end so the bees will be convinced that their current house is so disrupted that they have no choice but to build in the space now provided.
Bill


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## pmshoney (Dec 30, 2014)

I would just stand bucket up mount it to the plywood bottom board with a hole drilled in it so bees can move up into hive body put a top entrance the hive so they are passing frames each time they come and go put some lemongrass oil on top of frames the queen may move right up faster that way. Yes by standing the bucket up you may loose some younger brood but that's fine it will be so small amount you wont miss them. also its just less time you have to wait to get rid of that bucket. When you get the queen up and out of bucket place a queen excluder under hive body so she stays out of bucket. leave bucket on a full brood cycle after you 1st see queen up top or look at brood age of in frames to establish when she went up top. when its time to remove bucket screen over hole in bottom board with steel window screen or patch hole by other means. you can then let them rob out bucket or take honey for yourself or only because you know its there honey crush extract or melt extract at lowest possible temp and feed it back to them. remember honey should never be fed to bees as a rule its that fastest way I know to pickup a bee sickness I cringe when I hear "I went to the store and bought honey and put it out for the bees to help them"


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## pmshoney (Dec 30, 2014)

kind of off track but some may be new to small hive beetles "SHB" they can be a bugger. best to keep bees off ground on concrete, rubber mats, but then ants seem to live under that lol so I have found it helpful to sprinkle a bag of Diatomaceous earth on the ground 25ft circle around your hives I get it in 50# bags about $12 a bag at a cattle feed store ants don't seem to like it much either. it don't by any means stop the SHB but they cant live in the soil near hive and that helps a bit for the cost and trouble involved. there are other things you can paint on your boxes that help as well. best is keep bees strong and as much as it pains me to say don't get crazy about putting on too many empty boxes. Sandy soils are the worst for SHB.


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## pmshoney (Dec 30, 2014)

whiskers said:


> Does anybody think it would be better to keep the bucket on its side since thats how it was when the bees built this or is it better to put the bucket on end so the bees will be convinced that their current house is so disrupted that they have no choice but to build in the space now provided.
> Bill


The only negative I can think of about changing the bucket to standing up is you may end up with new eggs hanging upside down and the bees may or may not make them into queen cells for me I would see this as a plus. however if the queen is strong enough and with there new found room of the hive body they may be fine. There is the risk of queen cell building of inverted eggs and this will cause a swarm or a few when they hatch out. the txt books tell you the 1st queen to hatch kills the other unhatched queens this is not always the case you could end up with more than one virgin queen I have seen as many as 15 alive and well days after they hatched out still running scared hiding from the mother queen maybe? my brother and I found them and caged 14 as we were trying to catch the 15th she ran into mother queen and got balled and stung we got her caught and caged but she died shortly after but the other 14 made up fast nucs. now the younger stronger queen normally wins they say. but I can not count all the times I have had a hive swarm and the old marked queens is still at home and the hatched queen left with the swarm. sometimes 3 or more queens in one swarm. so the txt books are not always right they are a guide bees are bugs they don't know we humans think there are rules to fallow!


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

I would put the hive body on top of the barrel, just because it would make it much easier to inspect. That will force them to go through the bee box in order to work. Leave it that way for a week, then grab a comb of eggs and young open larva from your parents hive, shake all the bees off it, and put it in the bee box on top of the barrel. Check back in ten minutes, chances are you'll see the queen on that frame, checking out the strange smelling brood and spreading her pheromones over it to claim it as her own. If you don't see her on it, keep checking back on it, she should show up. Once you see her, put an excluder under the box. The only problem is that they will build queen cells in that barrel after you've trapped the queen into the top box. I think 8-10 days after trapping the queen in the box, I would move the barrel out from under it to a new stand of it's own. It will lose it's field force to the queens box, thereby reducing chances of them swarming. Then cut out the barrel into another box or two for another second hive. Or do something else, lots of possibilities with that barrel.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Make the hole between as big as you can. The queen will hesitate to go through a small opening into another area. I'm with Ray on reasons for going on top. It will let you see what's going on easier. If you have anything like drawn comb or better, some brood comb from another hive, it will help get them into the new box. If you have some comb for them you could drum them up and then put an excluder on. Just put it all together so they can move up into the top box and tap on the bucket slow and rhythmically. It doesn't have to be really hard, just tap tap tap tap tap tap until they mostly have moved up. Put the excluder under the box and wait a few days to see if the queen is up top and laying.

If you decide to cut them out, just cut around the outside edge and see if you can lift the bucket off. If not, then cut the bottom out of the bucket at that point. Once the bucket is off you can get to the comb.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Has anyone used Honey B Gone for jobs like this?


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## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I'm formulating a plan. At the moment I'm planning to dig a little hole in the ground and tip the bucket up into it. Then put a temp hive bottom on it with a hole roughly/smaller than the bucket opening with a deep of drawn comb. I understand the Queen is less likely to venture up if the hole is too small. 

One question and this may be for another sub - but the deep of drawn comb my parents gave me, it's been stored a while and I see small signs of old wax moths. Not bad though, just a couple spots on each frame. Is it okay to use this comb, meaning if the larva is gone will the bees clean it up and use the comb or should I just start from scratch? 

Also should I worry about acquiring a entrance excluder or is it okay to go without? I don't have one and my hope is to do this before I would be able to order one.


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## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

Spoke to my parents. They said they froze the box before they sealed and stored it as the wax moth evidence I see was the reason they froze it.


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## billabell (Apr 19, 2010)

Sounds like a good plan. I guess you mean an entrance reducer-just use a piece of 1x or 2x or the like cut to leave the bees an inch or two for ingress/egress.


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## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

I actually mean an entrance guard with excluder to force the Queen to stay inside. 

http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/product/WW-186.html


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## billabell (Apr 19, 2010)

I do not know anything about your area, so I guess swarms are possible at this time of year, but I wouldn't think with all that drawn comb and some brood that you are putting in that the bees are thinking about swarming. I don't think it is a good idea to keep drones confined to the hive in any case. You might have robbing issues if you have other hives in the area and no nectar flow. I would just reduce not exclude.


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## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

Well, I moved the colony on New Year Eve afternoon. Attached is the final resting spot (for now). The hive is sitting on top of the bucket. The hive bottom is some scrap wood I had with a hole cut out slightly smaller than the bucket. You may notice the lid isn't seated all the way in the photo which I fixed after taking it. There was a slight issue where the comb was sticking out the top of the bucket a little and pushing up on the center frame. I think it has seated itself by now with the pressure.

The deep has 8 frames of drawn comb and a divider/feeder filled with a gallon of sugar water. I put a dab of lemongrass oil on the feeder top. I questioned if that was a mistake thinking it may draw in other bees. I don't know. I also reduced the entrance to about 2 inches.

I've been observing the hive the last two days and I've discovered there is a rusted hole on the side of the bucket. This hole was in the ground in it's original resting spot and had wax coming out of it. I now see bees coming and going from this area. THe also are coming/going through the hive entrance.

Should I make attempt to close this hole? If so, what should I use?


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## billabell (Apr 19, 2010)

duct tape should work.


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## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

Thanks, the hole is covered. I used a combination of a paper bag and packing tape. The hive entrance is now being used quite well.


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## kdttocs (Mar 10, 2014)

Got the Queen! So far things have been going very well. The colony is strong and have moved up into the new hive very quickly. After traveling the last week for work, I checked on them this AM and discovered 2 frames of young brood. After about 3 minutes I found the queen. As I'm completely new to this I wasn't sure I was going to find her so easy. I scooped her up and marked her. I then inserted an excluder between the bucket and the hive box with the goal of letting any remaining brood hatch in the bucket below over the next 3 weeks, then remove the bucket.

So far so good! Things couldn't have gone any better so far.


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## billabell (Apr 19, 2010)

Congratulations!! Now you are a beekeeper and will become (if not already) infatuated with them-lot's of adventures ahead. I guess you already knew that from your parents. Good luck!!


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Awesome! You did a good job there for sure.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

Congrats! Sounds like it couldn't have went smoother. Depending on weather for your area and how strong they are and if you want another colony, you could split them apart let the remaining colony in the bucket raise a new queen let them build up a little and do it all over again........


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