I am extremely interested in this topic.
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@HankCowdog Thanks. @triggerscold had a great PM conversation with me. What I bought is a home for non-honey bees in our efforts to increase bee activity in the back yard.
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I got the same house from Costco. Did you already order the bees? Happy to go in on an order. What are you doing for mud?
My plan was to just hang it up and let nature take its courseā¦do I need to put mud in it?
really? That would be wonderful, however I have no where to put them at this time.
Anyone interested in running a Beekeeping SIG? We have a Robot SIG.
i wonder if he was just assebling boxes he had purchased or if he cut them there also 
i would have loved to pick his brain or be there durring that!!
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He said he built them all at Dms and he was a relatively new beekeeper.
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Do you have his contact info?
who is currently keeping bees? how are they doing etc?
Weāre not keeping bees intentionally, but we do have a hive that set itself up in a decorative (not load bearing) column on our porch early this summer. Weāve been just letting it do its thing, but I have a feeling that at some point the city is going to leave us a nastygram to get rid of them.
Anybody know any good services for LIVE bee removal? And when is the least harmful time for the bees to have them removed?
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Iām interested. It is my understanding from comments on Talk, that hives are started in the spring. If this is true, would like to learn now and build hives for spring and getting a swarm, however that it done.
See post 20, where Mike Churchill addressed when a beekeeper would most likely be interested in acquiring a swarm.
If they are inside a structure youāll want a cut out which is not too costly, if it costs at all. If they are on the outside and can just be scraped into a box Iām sure someone local would come get them. Where are you located? Winter is coming so they donāt have long to prep and build. If they are happy and not harming anyone I would leave them.
I understand that this one maybe difficult to get to due to its location (encased in brick). The reason we know this isnāt a load bearing column (even though it looks it) is because weāve already had to do some aesthetic repairs on the beam. In the picture below you can just see the bees gathered at the top where the column/beam meet.
Iām in Plano. I have no problem leaving them until the ideal timing to remove them. I havenāt been told that weāre required to move them yet, Iām just gathering information in anticipation.
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Iād look back on the thread to see the beekeeping organization @HankCowdog referenced. Most of those folks are serious about keeping bees alive. If they canāt do it, theyāll know someone that can.
My uninformed suspicion is that you would provide damp clay near the hive, and the bees would use it to create their hive in the box you have kindly provided.
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Not sure where youāre located, but Ace Bees (www.acebees.com) does complicated bee removals in the DFW Metroplex. Iād get advice from Horacio and Shirley as to the best time of year to do this (probably April-September). Spring, just before the nectar flow starting would be the time of year when the bees would be foraging, but honey reserves at a minimum.
Given the nature of where the hive is located, youāll probably need to use a ācatch hiveā and an excluder cone to allow the bees to leave, but not return to the hive. An empty hive box (with wax foundation) would be installed close to the entrance, and a cone of fine wire mesh placed over the beesā access point to the column. Exiting bees would climb up the inside of the cone and out the bee-sized opening in the tip. Returning bees would try to enter the old base, but would not be able to locate the hole at the tip of the cone, several inches away.
Eventually, theyāll give up finding the old entrance and enter the catch hive instead. Fast-foward a few weeks and all the brood from the original hive will have hatched and relocated to the new hive. At this point, the hive box (and bulk of the bees) can be removed from the location and the original entrance sealed (unfortunately killing the old queen and the few remaining bees left behind).
This method is slow, but does allow the bulk of the bees to be re-homed by either requeening or combining the workers with another hive. It also does no damage to the building structure which would otherwise need repair.
Worst case scenario
Note that honey and all the beeswax from the original hive is left behind. If this were in a wall behind sheet rock, some subsequent damage could occur when the wax melted in the summer heat without the bees being able to cool the hive. This can cause wax and honey to seep through the wall into the house interior. This should not be an issue with bees inside a brick column, however.
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The Catch Hive idea sounds like the best solution Iāve heard so far. This column that theyāre in is entirely external and I know for a fact they are not in the soffit above, so Iām not too worried about wax and honey damaging anything. Weāll just completely seal it up once the bees are gone.
Iāll give Ace Bees a call to verify timing. Thanks for the info!
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