A woman called and advised me she had a large colony of bees living in a birdhouse on her property. She asked if I would come and get them. I said sure, as soon as it warms up in the spring. No problem she said. Been there for years now.
I was very anxious to have a look at them, but it's been in the mid 20's for several weeks now. Finally, today, it got up to 49, and I went to have a look. She apologized when I got there. I asked what was up? She told me a raccoon had torn a hole in the roof and destroyed the colony 2 nights ago. She was right. THere was comb all over the yard, and a large hole scratched right through the roof. She did offer me the raccoon if I wanted it to make up for my loss...... um.. no thanks
Really thought I might have something when she said they had been there for years.
Would this have been your first capture?
I would think that after getting wound up
with the possibility of starting a new hive,
that had a be a bit of a let down. :(
Not my first capture, although the first one in several years. I was just very dissappointed that this colony had been surviving untreated for a number of years but was destroyed before I could get them. I really wanted to observe their comb building, mite load, etc, compared to the three colonys I currently have. I don't like putting chemicals in my hives, and I got them late, so I haven't had time to regress them. There is alot of discussion on feral survivors, so I wanted to see it first hand.