Author Topic: Moving bees from house to yard (Read 5095 times)

Billybee · « **on:** June 16, 2009, 08:40:58 pm »

Hello,

We have a nest growning onto the house. Between the first and second floor. I would call it a small but, growing colony.
We live in Ft. Lauderdale so its hot and humid most of the time.
We dont want to kill them and dont even mind helping them grow. We would like to move them to a bee box or something of that nature or at least help them to the bee box when they "Split". We know nothing of beekeeping so what would you do?

http://www.myspace.com/billysbees

iddee · « **Reply #1 on:** June 16, 2009, 09:26:18 pm »

Beemaster member "Understudy" lives 45 miles north of you. Send him a PM and give him your phone number. The possibilities are endless, so it's far too much to try and write. Maybe he can take a look, or at least talk to you for a while about what can be done.

TwT · « **Reply #2 on:** June 16, 2009, 09:29:42 pm »

Quote from: iddee on June 16, 2009, 09:26:18 pm

Beemaster member "Understudy" lives 45 miles north of you. Send him a PM and give him your phone number. The possibilities are endless, so it's far too much to try and write. Maybe he can take a look, or at least talk to you for a while about what can be done.

good idea, that's the road to take.

Natalie · « **Reply #3 on:** June 16, 2009, 09:29:52 pm »

I think its great that you are considering keeping these bees.
I have seen several posts here where people want someone to come and take them away so I love that you want to keep them.
Contact understudy like iddee said and he or someone he may recommend will help you get situated. He will know what equipment you need and help you move them into the hive.
Best of luck.

Understudy · « **Reply #4 on:** June 17, 2009, 09:47:27 am »

Hi All,

I got the PM and will be making phone calls in a bit.

Hope I can help.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Billybee · « **Reply #5 on:** June 17, 2009, 12:43:34 pm »

Thanks to all for the responses!

You guys like your bees thats for sure.

Irwin · « **Reply #6 on:** June 18, 2009, 11:09:38 am »

Well what's up is Understudy going to do the cutout or talk you through it. What ever happen's take Lot's of pic's to share with us.

Understudy · « **Reply #7 on:** June 18, 2009, 11:13:07 am »

I spoke to him yesterday. Because I am going on vacation in a few I am going to have Leo come do the cut out.

Leo is president of the Broward Beekeepers Association.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Billybee · « **Reply #8 on:** June 18, 2009, 01:49:37 pm »

I heard from Leo. He is coming over next week to give some input. Maybe soon I will mount a streaming bee cam. I have the skills for that.
I will keep you all posted and put a link up should I get that done.

I tried to post a link to the video but, this site says I have not posted enough to include links. So you now cant see them.

Maybe soon I guess.
If you want the link PM me.

Billy

NasalSponge · « **Reply #9 on:** June 18, 2009, 02:13:17 pm »

If you PM a Moderator like TwT they can approve and post the link for you.

Billybee · « **Reply #10 on:** June 24, 2009, 04:14:34 pm »

O.K. everyone I have been paid a visit by Leo Gosser from The Broward Beekeepers assosiation. Thank you Leo!

He has given me the advice I needed to move on with the bee relocation to the yard. Turns out there are quite a few bees behind the wooden ceiling. So I am going to dive into my Beekeeping with a nice sized cut out. I have my list of things I need to buy to be prepared.

I am on a site called brushy mountain bee farm looking at boxes, frames and such. I could use a little help on picking the right parts for the box. I don't know if I'm putting these in the right order but, you guys know what I mean. He said I need a screened bottom board, cover, frames to fit deep brood, a pack of 10 wired foundation.

If someone could point me in the right direction at this site just on the box it would be a great help. I don't want to end up with stuff that does not work together and have to send it back. The project is already big enough.

I can handle the rest of the list as far as I can tell. Once I have all of the things in place I will begin this process. I will at the very least video tape every move I make. I may even have the extra gear to stream it live. I will keep you posted.

Thats all for now.

Thanks,
Billy

iddee · « **Reply #11 on:** June 24, 2009, 07:48:16 pm »

Brushy Mountain is a great company to deal with, but this one may save some shipping costs. It is closer to you.

http://www.gabees.com/

Fred Rossman, of Gabees is also a nice guy to deal with.

Just order one complete hive and you will have the bottom, top, box, frames and foundation that fit.

TwT · « **Reply #12 on:** June 24, 2009, 08:03:13 pm »

if I remember right Dallas buys his stuff from a Dadant store there close to him in florida, maybe you are just a hour or so away and can just drive to pick up equipment. its in High Springs, Florida. heres the info on the link below

http://www.dadant.com/branch/umat.html

Billybee · « **Reply #13 on:** July 10, 2009, 12:53:30 pm »

Hello everyone,
I have gotten my bee gear, I am going to start going to Broward Beekeepers association meetings, I am reading a lot about bees to gear up for this task, I am observing the bees in question that I will bee removing from the house and I have also started a myspace page to post pics and video on so anyone interested in seeing this and giving opinions on anything they see can do so. You can see the page without being a member and if you want to comment on the pics I have posted you can do it here or on myspace if you have a page.

I have not done anything yet because I do not have the knowledge I need to keep everyone involved alive. There are some pics already posted on Myspace so feel free to check them out and give me your thoughts.

Still cant post links yet. I will work on that now.

Thanks,

Billy

annette · « **Reply #14 on:** July 10, 2009, 04:37:41 pm »

I think it is just great that you would get into beekeeping just because of this hive in your house. I love hearing things like this and I wish you a joyous time with your new hobby.

Keep us informed and yes do post photos and the website so we can follow along.

Annette

luvin honey · « **Reply #15 on:** July 11, 2009, 01:34:37 am »

That's too cool!! I hemmed and hawed and dragged my feet for months before finally deciding to go for it. Congratulations to you for jumping right in! These forums have been priceless to me, and I'm so glad you have found help here, too. Good luck when you do the cutout!

Nathen · « **Reply #16 on:** July 11, 2009, 02:26:48 pm »

One question that I would ask from the point of view of someone that is in a similar situation: not a beekeeper but interested. Have you been stung recently and do you know how your body reacts? If not, I would recommend finding that out before you attempt the cutout. You don't want to have your wall or ceiling open and be elbow deep in bees and then find out that you react badly to bee stings. Chances are you probably don't, but you want to know going in how you react.

I saw your myspace video. I didn't realize from reading this thread that you actually watched the swarm moving in. That's pretty cool. A lot of people would panic in that situation. A swarm on the move is probably when they look most intimidating.

Billybee · « **Reply #17 on:** July 12, 2009, 11:54:49 am »

I have not been stung in about a year. I have been in construction for the last 25 years and have been stung on many occasions. All brought on by me surprising the bees by going up a ladder or being in strange high places where everyone else will not climb to. There was even a time when I stepped on a nest (not sure if they were honeybees) that was in the ground on the edge of the woods in Cherry Hill New Jersey and was swarmed not too severely but swarmed. I got stung at least 15 times and the welts went away in about a half an hour.

So I do feel that I am going to be fine when I get hit.

Thanks for bringing that up. This is the kind of detail I am looking for from people.

I will be going to The Broward Beekeepers Association meeting today. I am hoping to gain enough knowledge there to really start getting a handle on when to open things up, what I am going to find when I start to open things up, what I am going to do with what I find, and once I get what I find moved how to make sure they thrive. They seem to be multiplying nicely where they are now. I hope that continues once this is done.

Live cams going up soon!

Thanks,

Billy

Nathen · « **Reply #18 on:** July 12, 2009, 05:20:47 pm »

If you got stung 15 times by honeybees, you would know because you would have 15 stingers left behind waiting to be scraped out of your skin. To my knowledge, honeybees are the only stinging insects that leave their stingers behind when they sting. From the circumstances you describe, I would wager that most of those stings were probably wasp or yellow jacket stings. Especially the nest in the ground. That sounds like a classic yellow jacket encounter.

Based on the number of times you've been stung, it sounds like you don't have much to worry about in terms of bad reactions. I would still make sure that you know for sure that you've been stung by honeybees (as opposed to wasps, yellow jackets, bumblebees, and hornets) before tearing into this hive, though. They all have different venom, and I believe it is possible to be allergic to the venom from one and not others. I'm not sure how common that is, though. My guess as someone with no medical experiance is that you'll probably be fine.

The local beekeepers' association should be a great source of information. If you have not found the Honeybee Removal subsection of this forum, I would also recommend visiting there frequently. The members of this forum post some really great pictures of removals in process, so it will give you an idea of what to expect. Some people also post links to youtube videos, which are also very informative.

Billybee · « **Reply #19 on:** July 12, 2009, 11:09:56 pm »

O.K. everyone,

I went to the B.B.A. meeting today, joined, learned some very important things and met some cool people. I have an offer from Leo Gosser from the B.B.A. to be here when I do this to guide me along for the cut out. So I will get with him on his schedule and go from there. He seems to think it's a relativly easy one. ;)

As far as the stings go I do believe the ground episode was yellow jackets looking back on it. I definitely recall wasp stings a lot. I remember being stung in the face one while riding my motorcycle and I believe I removed a stinger then. Could be wrong though because it has been a while. I also recall a spider bite that was real bad for 3 months and a Caterpillar sting when I leaned over a bush in Florida right on the chest. That was about 2 inches long and way painful. No doctor visit and it went away in about a week. So I am not sweating the honeybee plus I have the protective gear.

Nathen mentions a Honeybee removal subsection in this forum. I have not seen it yet but, I am looking. I am taking in all info as I can and greatly appreciate everybody's help.. I had no idea bees were such a hot topic when I decided to do this.

The time is near and once I know the schedule I will put the cameras up then post the links to them. They will be viewable on I phones also.

Billy