# Removal of Bees in Bird house.



## ken rice (Apr 28, 2010)

Remove the roof and access the situation. If its full of comb, remove and band to frames. Watch for the queen, take the comb she's on and put her in the box, the rest will follow.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Ken's advice is good advice. Although I am curious. Why is the birdhouse so far off the ground in the first place?


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## BackYardPhenomena (Jul 11, 2012)

I am not sure, but have done one of these before. It was not a success and the bees obsconded because I couldn't find the queen. Maybe I'll have some more luck this time.


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

Info above is good advice. There is at least one other way that I have used several times to remove from bird houses and gourds.. 

If the birdhouse is 8" wide and 12" tall, take a deep and a shallow, place 5 deep frames in the deep, 5 shallow frames in the shallow super, then simply place the birdhouse in the empty portion of the 2 chambers. Stuff the remainder of the empty space with sacks or cardboard. The bees and queen will move out of the birdhouse onto the comb provided. After the queen has started laying in the 2 chambers you provided,(leave it long enough for all brood in the birdhouse to emerge), remove the birdhouse, set it out about 25 yards from the hive and let the bees rob it out. Then clean out the birdhouse.

Since the bird house is 12" tall, one deep is not tall enough by itself. I have done a few of these, but, the bird houses always went into one deep. Obviously, the bird houses I had were less than 9 5/8 tall, and would sit inside the deep.

cchoganjr


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## Scrapfe (Jul 25, 2008)

All swarms on bird houses are not living in the bird house.








I picked this one up today at the 11Th hole.


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## BackYardPhenomena (Jul 11, 2012)

Mr. Hogan that is some great advice. I went and picked up the hive last night and it was a bit larger than expected. about 13" tall because of the peak of the roof and 11 inch wide. It is constructed out of 2x6s. I just used the sawzall to cut down the sides of the roof so it could fit in a deep. I put another deep on top of this. Because of the peaked roof I couldn't put too many frames inside but I did put about 5 medium frames in the top deep with honey and brood. They were pretty into the frames when I just checked on them. Seemed to be pretty gentle bees. Hopefully the plan works.


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## BackYardPhenomena (Jul 11, 2012)

So I took Mr. Hogan's advice and stuck the birdhouse insdie two deep hive bodies and borrowed 5 medium frames of comb. During a quick inspection on Friday evening, I spotted the queen. I quickly cages her and rubberbanded the cage to a frame. I came back the next mornign to cut out what was inside the birdhouse.

The bees were caring for the queen around the cage in the morning, so I set the 5 frames in a medium and took the birdhouse to the side. The birdhouse was nailed with thick 4 inch nails. I used a sawzall and expected a swarm of bees to come out from the vibration. There was none. WhenI lifted the top off, all the comb was in the bottom of the birdhouse and somewhat ravaged. I picked up one piece of comb and saw a serious infestation of hive beetle larvae. There wasn't any brood in the comb at all. What a sight. 

I let the queen go and filled the medium with frames. It sure seems to be a dearth of bees in the box, but when I take a look at how much comb was in the birdhouse that would make sense.


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