Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: One for JP - Through the floor  (Read 3992 times)

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
One for JP - Through the floor
« on: June 27, 2009, 10:04:33 pm »
Did a removal today in a house that was built in the 1800's. Homeowner said the bees had been there for 5 years.  It is a rental place and last tenant felt "blessed" by them being there.  New tenants move in on Wednesday and they weren't so excited about the bees. First story walls where 18" thick stone blocks.   Later a 2nd story out of wood was added.  Bees where in the second story floor above the stone wall and 1st floor ceiling.   Was quite the challenge with floor joist running both ways, stone shims and flat nails.  Went through about 12 sawzall blades.


Found the queen and plenty of brood.  I assume she is young and they have recently swarmed because I found quite a few queen cells in an area of comb that was not being used.
Queen cell with flap door

They had built comb in 4 separate areas that only had small crack accesses to one another.



"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline JP

  • The Swarm King
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 11709
  • Gender: Male
  • I like doing cut-outs, but I love catching swarms!
    • JPthebeeman.com
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2009, 10:09:06 pm »
Great job Rob! Doesn't look like they had much honey at all huh? Must of ate it up before they swarmed. Not many bees either huh?


...JP
My Youtube page is titled JPthebeeman with hundreds of educational & entertaining videos.

My website JPthebeeman.com http://jpthebeeman.com

Offline iddee

  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 10853
  • Gender: Male
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2009, 10:26:04 pm »
Better you than me. Hope you got paid well.

Tough job. Glad it was successful.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline G3farms

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1598
  • Gender: Male
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2009, 10:27:25 pm »
looks like you had some real fun there, a dozen blades lol :)

How thick was that floor, looks like it is 2" thick. Good idea on putting some strips of wood on the flooring to hold it together and also for a handle, smart thinking.

Great job.

G3
those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your keister is a catchin!!!

Bees will be bees and do as they please!

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2009, 10:56:56 pm »
Great job Rob! Doesn't look like they had much honey at all huh? Must of ate it up before they swarmed. Not many bees either huh?


...JP

Well, the original plan was to zip along the floor joists and pull the whole thing up and put it between saw horses.  That plan ended when I hit the joist going the opposite direction (that's where the first floor stone wall started, so it was a good thing I didn't come in thru the ceiling).  The first section I pulled up had very few bees,  but the top 1/3 of the combs where full of honey.  My picture taking got a little sparse after that,  but the next section towards the wall was full of bees and brood (and rock shims :roll: )  Then I notice the adjacent sections had access (and bees).  They turned out to be full of honey.

Floor had oak hardwood on top of 1" (true 1") tongue and groove sub floor.  Those darn hardened square nails gave me fits.  Sawzall didn't even scratch them. The rock shims bent the heck out of the blades too.  Had forgot my circular saw,  so had to tough it out with the sawzall.

Got an extra 2 hours out of it, so made out OK.
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline JP

  • The Swarm King
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 11709
  • Gender: Male
  • I like doing cut-outs, but I love catching swarms!
    • JPthebeeman.com
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2009, 12:36:59 am »
Rob, by any chance you keep a cat's claw in your tool box? If not, they are a Godsend on getting nails out of floors, fascias, etc...

http://hand-tools.hardwarestore.com/67-416-nail-pullers-and-claw-bars/claw-bar-623931.aspx


...JP
My Youtube page is titled JPthebeeman with hundreds of educational & entertaining videos.

My website JPthebeeman.com http://jpthebeeman.com

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2009, 08:28:18 am »
Ya, I have a real old cat's claw that was my grandad's  :)    Problem was these nails where used to put down the hardwood flooring through the groove and where not visible.  Thanks though, and good piece of advice on a tool that should be added to the removal list if it isn't already there.
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline Rebel Rose Apiary

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 218
  • Gender: Female
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2009, 01:49:43 pm »
I noticed the thickness of the flooring too....glad it was you and not me. I use the imported sawsall blades....they are white and NOT from China....but from some other place in Europe...they last forever. Some are made in Italy and others in the same pack are from Chechslovakia(sp?)

After last night's tornado experience....I am thinking about adding another tool to my removal toll list.....dynamite!  :evil: It look like some one tossed a stick of dynamite to my hives....the falling trees did that much damage.

Well, now it is back to work and trying to get the hives put together again; I know how the King's men felt when they tried to put back Humpty Dumpty!

I cannot find any of my Ross Rounds! It is like they vanished!

Brenda

Offline joker1656

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 349
  • Gender: Male
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2009, 12:52:33 pm »
Nice work, Robo.  I have not had one in a floor, yet.  I have not done many, anyway, but the few I have done have all been in the exterior. 

I have to ask, how do/did you figure out where in the floor they were?  Maybe it is obvious when you see one, but it seems like it would be pretty difficult.

Did you repair the floor after the cutout was finished? 

Good work!
"Fear not the night.  Fear that which walks the night.  I am that which walks the night, BUT only EVIL need fear me..."-Lt. Col. David Grossman

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2009, 01:23:45 pm »
This one was a little challenging to figure out.  They where entering at the corner of the porch roof right above the solid stone wall.  With a bore scope thru the entrance, I determined they were going at least 18" along the rock wall (as far as I could go with the bore scope).   Homeowner was hoping they were in the wall, and the fact that there was a bunch of dead bees in the one window sill, I drilled a few holes from the outside and took a peak with bore scope and determined they weren't in the wall.   With an infrared thermometer I found a spot on the floor that was 3 degrees warmer than the rest.  I test hole proved right where they were when the drill came out with honey on it ;)  I then cut a larger hole to see how far back it went and to find the floor joists.


Cutting the floor up was the worst of it.   Once I could get the sections up,  I just sucked them up with the bee vac,  put the brood in cut-out frames and put them in the vac.  Took them home and set the vac on the hive stand and the next morning just swapped out the bottom and top.  Had less than a handful of dead bees and some sawdust on the bottom of the vac.   By the next morning, they had repaired/attached the brood comb and the queen was laying.

No I didn't do the repair.  The contractor was there when I was trying to determine where the bees where.  It was his choice to go in thru the floor,  he thought it would be easier than dealing with the sheet rock ceiling and perhaps lathe and plaster it was covering.   Also, by going in through the floor, it was all isolated to on bedroom, where downstairs was just one big room.  In hindsight it was good, because 3/4 of the nest was over the stone wall and wouldn't have been accessible from downstairs.  He is suppose the be repairing the floor today so that the new tenants can move in on Wednesday.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline joker1656

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 349
  • Gender: Male
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #10 on: June 29, 2009, 11:11:48 pm »
Robo, thanks for that info.  It goes to show me how much I don't know.  Although, I pretty much realize that daily LOL.  I appreciate the details.  Nice work. 
"Fear not the night.  Fear that which walks the night.  I am that which walks the night, BUT only EVIL need fear me..."-Lt. Col. David Grossman

Offline joker1656

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 349
  • Gender: Male
Re: One for JP - Through the floor
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2009, 07:22:01 pm »
Robo,

Thanks again for the info.  It made a huge difference today for me.  I had to go look at a two-story brick farmhouse.  The folks had bees going in under a facia board.  I climbed a ladder and could see that they were going in and it looked like they were going down. 

The homeowner was convinced they were in the attic.  Even though I did not think they were we checked.  They weren't there. 

I then checked the interior wall by feel.  I do not have a thermometer yet.  I could feel a distinct temp change.  I could also hear them clear as day through the lathe and plaster.  I was able to pinpoint there location pretty well. 

We will see when I actually cut in how accurate I was.  But it looks good so far.  Scheduled for next week.  I will let you know.   

Thanks, Robo, I appreciate it.   
"Fear not the night.  Fear that which walks the night.  I am that which walks the night, BUT only EVIL need fear me..."-Lt. Col. David Grossman

 

anything