I got a call from a guy a week or so ago wanting to know if I could remove a hive a bees who had set up in an old wine barrel. It was sitting on one end upright and the bees were going in and out through the bung hole. He did not want the barrel hurt an any way so we had a problem because I did not think I could get all the comb out through a 2 inch hole. So he decided that he would work on getting the rings off the barrel so that it could be taken apart an put back together. He called me today and I went over and did the removal.
When we took the last top ring off the end/top of the barrel started falling into the barrel with the weight of the bees hanging on it. I was able to get a hand on it but then it split in half. We still were able to get it set down in an empty box then we were able to take the combs off one at a time and put them into frames. I dont know how good the comb is going to be because it is sitting weird in the frames with string around it. After getting all the comb that I could into the frames and into the box I set the hive up where the barrel had been and the bees seemed to be going in and out ok. I will go back next week and take the hive to one of my bee yards.
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That was quiye an interesting cutout Greg.How much comb and bees did you get?
I was able to put comb into 8 frames. I used string to hold it in and I dont know how good it is going to work because it was kind of flopping around but we will see. I think there will be enough bees to fill one deep with out a problem. I have not been back to check on the hive so I dont know for sure yet.