This was #1 of three for the day. I took this colony from a wall yesterday. I don't get many wall removals for some reason. They are much easier then the ceiling removals and soffit removal I get. I wish I had more of these like JP does. I also took a swarm from a tree next to this colony about 35 feet in the air. There were about as many bees in the colony as there were in the swarm. Amazing! About 6 pounds of bee in both. Gave the cutout to a friend and took the swarm for myself.
http://picasaweb.google.com/rsderrick/22ndApril20091#
Nice work Scott! The one in the wall, first one, looks like a late swarm colony from last season.
...JP
I think they had been there for at least three years. The paneling in the den was warped. You can kinda see it in the photo. The paneling was paper thin due to the heat and moisture. It had really deteriorated. If someone had hit it lightly or even bumped it it would have opened the wall.
What I'm going by is the fact that they didn't fill out the wall void.
...JP
What I didn't explain is that I actually had to go behind that wall in a storage room to get to the top of it. There was about another 18 inches of comb up above what you can see. It has collapsed a time or two due to it proximity to the roof and the heat.