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Author Topic: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!  (Read 7445 times)

Offline JackM

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #20 on: May 04, 2012, 10:09:58 am »
Your response to a bee sting is not allergic, instead a normal reaction.  A true allergy will effect your ability to breathe.  Great you have an epi pen.

I really think you should get some rubber bands.  I know you already have done a bunch of work, but how you going to move the string and keep it tight without ruining the brood comb, not as solid at things look on the vids you have looked at.  If you don't start till Sat, you have time to drop by office depot or something and get a box, they are cheap, even wally world carries those big ones. 

Yes, I am looking forward to a nice weekend.  My girls have been very upset this week trying to forage between downpours.
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Offline simmonds

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2012, 11:50:08 am »
Thanks again everyone for the fantastic responses.  We really appreciate all the help and suggestions and we will be picking up a package or two of large rubber bands to have on hand in case we need them.  The cotton string method I read somewhere on the internet before I discovered this site and became a member...if only I had come here first I could have saved myself alot of work :-x :-D

I sent some pictures of my homemade vac and a lousy  pic of the hive through a mirror along to the mods so maybe they will post them.

My wife stopped by our local bee supply to pick up one of those hair clip looking queen traps and boy I was surprised to learn that little thing was 15 dollars!  Yikes!

Offline Kathyp

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #22 on: May 04, 2012, 12:01:43 pm »
those are handy to have, but don't feel you need to cage her if you find her on some comb and can just dump her in the hive.  they are nice for protecting her and for moving her if she's in the way.  most of the time i find her on a piece of comb and just let her crawl into the hive.  JP and Co. like to compete to find her.  :-)
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline simmonds

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #23 on: May 04, 2012, 12:35:40 pm »
Sweet!  The mods  posted my pics at the beginning of the thread!  Thanks so much.

Chris and Julie

Offline Kathyp

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #24 on: May 04, 2012, 02:12:37 pm »
looking forward to the after action report  :-D

one suggestion on the bee vac.  it looks nuc size?  be sure not to over fill it and to empty it often if it's getting full.  try not to suck up any honey.....  guess that's more than one....

good luck. let us know how it goes!!
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline simmonds

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #25 on: May 04, 2012, 02:54:17 pm »
looking forward to the after action report  :-D

one suggestion on the bee vac.  it looks nuc size?  be sure not to over fill it and to empty it often if it's getting full.  try not to suck up any honey.....  guess that's more than one....

good luck. let us know how it goes!!

Thanks again Kathy!  The vac is rather small...will probably only hold up to about 3 pounds of bees so I am planning on emptying it a few times as I go.  Maybe make a observation window on one side of the vac with plexi glass so I can see inside.  Should I just dump the bees straight into the new hive and frames as it fills up?  If I find the queen should I place her into the new hive and use a separator so she cannot get out or is this necessary or what is the best way to do this?

Offline iddee

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #26 on: May 04, 2012, 09:11:59 pm »
Just dump them as you go. If you can get the queen in the clip, leave her in it and in the hive for 24 to 48 hours. it's not that important, tho. If she is in the hive, she will stay most times. Looks like you have planned well and are ready for a successful cutout.

Your bee supplier needs a horse whupping. Those clips are 3.50 each here.
http://www.dadant.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=queen+clip&search_in_description=1&x=0&y=0
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Offline dean0

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #27 on: May 04, 2012, 09:58:23 pm »
Chris and Judy,

Did you checkout the video Hardwood did assisting me with a cutout? http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,37379.0.html
Your hive sounds like it is in the same general location as the one that he and I removed this past Wednesday.  It was just inside the opening under the house, under a layer of insulation and it was located under the vanity in the homeowners bathroom. We vacuumed up 2 full boxes of bees and there were still more clinging to the comb.  Scott estimated between 6 and 8 lbs of bees. It sure is difficult and a little nerve racking lying there on your back with bees falling in your face or buzzing around your ears, knowing that any minute one is going to sting your face.  It helps to have an assistant that can hand you things that you can see or reach yourself while lying on your back. I think between Scott and I we only took 3 stings.  Do you have any bee quick or bee-go.  I use bee-quick and it is nice to have in case you need to run bees out of an area that you cannot reach.

Good Luck with your cutout. Take pictures and let us know how it goes.

Dean0

Offline Robo

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #28 on: May 04, 2012, 10:50:57 pm »
any reason for the string vs. the rubber bands?
I would consider a change in plan to use rubber bands instead.  With rubber bands, the bees will chew through them and they will fall to the bottom.  The one and only time I used cotton twine,  they build comb right to it and it became a royal pain not to mention  as mess as they built new comb centered on the string.

Just a suggestion.  Good Luck and take pictures/video.
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Offline simmonds

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #29 on: May 07, 2012, 02:14:28 pm »
Julie and I would really like to thank everyone for the encouragement and tips that lead to a very successful cutout on Saturday!  We ended up with about 5 pounds of bees and 10 full frames of brood and the bees seem to be doing great in their new home only 30 yards away from their home under the house.

We started at about noon and finished the job about 7 p.m.!!!!!  I know, I know...don't laugh too hard we are very new at this, our first cutout and we have only been beeks for just over a month.  We took a break half way through and grabbed a bite to eat and a nice rest thinking we might be only half way through when in reality we had already removed all the comb.  After the break I spent quite a while trying to access further under the house to remove the insulation layer and discovered we already removed the entire hive and comb so we spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the old hive and all our tools etc..  

I had prepared 10 frames with the cotton twine and 10 frames with rubber bands as suggested by some of you.  My wife started by filling the cotton twine frames and it worked really good.  We used all 10 of those frames and were finished so we didn't get a chance to try the rubberbands, but I can tell how much more easy the rubberbands would have been.  Next time we will be using rubberbands.

My bee vac worked really well and we figure we had a 99% survival rate at least with the vac or even better!

We made one call to kathyp half way through and she really helped us feel good about the job and encouraged us through.  Thanks Kathy!  And deanO, thanks for the video link...we had watched it several times and it also provided great encouragement.  Our job was almost identical except we only had about a foot of clearance at the most and it was very muddy and wet below the house...also we wore bee suits as we are not nearly as brave as some of you folks yet.

Thanks again everyone for the help on this.  We are already looking forward to our next cutout or swarm catch!  :-D

Chris and Julie
« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 02:26:59 pm by simmonds »

Offline simmonds

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Re: First Post - Few Questions - Feral Hive Removal
« Reply #30 on: May 07, 2012, 02:21:50 pm »
Oh yes, forgot to mention...Julie and I only received one sting each from this.  Me on my hand through my leather glove when I reached way back into the hive with the vac, and Julie on her arm below here armpit when one of the ladies got trapped there as she lowered her arm.  Hardly painful at all and neither of us had any kind of reaction to it!  Woo Hoo!

On Sunday Julie did get one sting right next to her eye...our foster son panicked when a bee landed on him and he flicked it right into Julies eye trapping it behind her glasses.  That one she sad was VERY painful and hurt for hours!  :'(

Still we had SOOO much fun this weekend and are really loving beekeeping!

We took quite a few pics and a tiny video that I will try to post up soon.

Cheers!

Offline Kathyp

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #31 on: May 07, 2012, 02:29:50 pm »
by the time you called me, you had it in the bag.  good job to both of you!!
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline lenape13

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #32 on: May 07, 2012, 02:31:19 pm »
Congratulations on a job well done. You're old pros now.

Offline jmblakeney

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #33 on: May 07, 2012, 03:20:42 pm »
Great to hear that you got them....  Looking forward to pics and vid.   G3 and I done a cutout yesterday, started at ~11 and ended about 6.  Each one is different and takes different amounts of time. 
I couldn't help but snigger a lil when you told of your foster son flicking the bee into your wifes glasses.  I think that happened to G3 and I both yesterday.  Neither got stung though.  Those stings around the eyes really swell my eyes shut for 2-3 days.

Thanks for posting your experience.

James
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Offline Riggs

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #34 on: May 07, 2012, 03:55:51 pm »
Really glad to hear it went well, you will be/are hooked for sure now.
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Offline ME Girl

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #35 on: May 07, 2012, 05:47:40 pm »
Good for you!  I will never forget my first cut out with my husband.  We had fun be he got a little annoyed with me trying to make sure all the bees got into the hive( we had a lot of young bees that just didn't seem to know what was going on and we didn't have a bee vac yet). It was nice though to save the bees (house was getting torn down).  We have had both feral bees and package bees and I think that the feral ones have always been healthier and nicer bees.  Just my opinion.  Congratulations on a job well done!
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Offline simmonds

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #36 on: May 07, 2012, 06:08:12 pm »
Thanks everyone!  It sure was fun.  I was carefully vacuuming the bees off each brood section one at a time, and right when I was sure (90% sure anyway) that I saw the queen she disappeared into my vac nozzle! :shock:  Drats!  I really wanted to put her in my over priced plastic queen cage...oh well, they seem to be doing great so far and I cannot wait to open them and check the progress (in a week or two of course)!

As far as being hooked...you betcha!  Already posted on CL for swarm and hive removal...also hung one swarm trap on the property and have two more ready to go up as soon as I scout out a good location.

Chris and Julie

Offline David McLeod

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #37 on: May 07, 2012, 08:47:53 pm »
Congrats! Now get rid of that overpriced PLASTIC clip because sure as God made little green apples you will step on it or otherwise bust it up. I bought two to start and after I had to replace both of them a few times I bought a metal one and still have it.
Now since you're a veteran at cutouts, you want a job? I'm booked into next week on cutouts.
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Offline iddee

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Re: First Post - Feral Hive Removal - SUCCESS!!! UPDATE!
« Reply #38 on: May 07, 2012, 10:48:24 pm »
Sounds to me like it took you just the time I told you it would.  :-*

Good Job. I had no doubt you could do it. I could see you were planing it well.
"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"

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