It was a dark and stormy night... actually it was a gorgeous day. The night before, I came home and my son said we got a hit from the bee removal listing. A lady had bees in her wall. "We don't do cutouts, son." "But no one else will help her, the siding is falling off anyway, her son is allergic, and she sounds desperate." "O.K. I will call her and think about it. Maybe Bob will want it, he has lots of construction experience and two queenless hives."
Called Bob - "Sure, sounds interesting - let me know details when you talk to her."
Called lady - siding falling off, bees there two years according to neighbors, new house for her, needs them gone, son allergic and epileptic, and oh, she had them sprayed the night before (same night she called me). "The bees are dead then." "Oh, no. He just sprayed a little from the ground and is coming back today. I could hear them buzzing in the wall last night." "Bees are very sensitive to insecticides, I am sure it's a done deal, I'm sorry."
Called Bob and gave the bad news. "They might be o.k. inside, I would still like to go." "Are you sure? If you are serious I will go with you, I have never seen bees in a wall in person." "Sure, let's go!" My 16 year old son wanted to come too. The lady gave us directions and said she would tell the exterminator to hold off. Bob said we would take a look and then give the lady a quote. We put everything in the car that we might need just in case.
Off we go, not realizing that Clear Lake was almost in Minnesota.
Clear Lake is a beautiful little town, anyone who doesn't mind snow and doesn't need a job should move there.
Dead bees on the ground. Potential location of hive in wall - 12 feet in the air. Siding in no way "falling off". Bob puts ladder up and listens with stethoscope. Nothing. Lady - "I am sure they are in there. You can take down the whole wall to find them, I'm going to replace this section anyway." Bob drills a hole and peers in with a flashlight. Sees comb, they appear to be in the soft. Still hears nothing, even though was just drilling. Takes down soft board. Old appearing comb, four, count 'em, four live bees fly out. "See, I knew there were still a lot of bees." "Lady, four is not a lot of bees." No brood or honey in the comb Bob is pulling out. "I'm sorry, there is no live colony here." "Well, you can take that whole section down, Maybe they are farther down." "No, there is only insulation down there. You will need to hire someone to pull the rest of this comb out of here and put in new insulation before you seal this back up." "Can't you pull the rest out before you go?" "No." "I don't know who I could get to do that." "Any local handyman could do it for you." "I'm sure they are still alive in there, you could tear down the wall. A few days ago our neighbor said the bees were just covering the house." "No." (Do you notice the copious lack of any offer of financial re-numeration for this?)
We left.
A waste of time right? Well, not for me. I learned a lot. What comb looks like through a little hole. What it looks like once you rip the soft off. Don't forget a hammer. Never agree to a trip without an understanding that there will be a trip charge if far away. Never touch a house without a contract in writing stating non liability for damages to property or people. (Nothing happened on that front, but it could have and it would be he said, she said.) Bees are really smart. (They must be - apparently most of them moved out before this lady ever bought the house.)
Most of all, go with your gut. If your instincts say "This is a waste of time." it probably is a waste of time. :-D
JC
It's not a complete waste of time if you learned something. It appears you did and you've further helped others like me avoid the same pitfalls. Thanks for the post.
Yep, not a waste of time if you learned something. I got a call to go get a swarm this morning. Turned out it was only about the size of my fist, though supposedly had been huge the night before. This was only my second time (in 3 days) to get a swarm, but what I learned is that if you spray Lemon Pledge in the box you are collecting them in, the bees practically fly themselves in. I had heard that trick somewhere and forgot to try it on my first swarm collection. I sure worked well today. I'll never go after a swarm without a can of Lemon Pledge.
don't go after a cutout if they tell you it's been sprayed, even if there are still bees....unless you are just doing it for the money. very rarely will you end up with a viable hive.
i don't do houses anymore unless it's one that being worked on anyway. sometime you get those calls where the contractor has to stop work because they have run into a hive. those are usually good ones if the contractor didn't take a can of spray to them :-D if i do a house, i have to do it with the understanding that i will take the hive out, but repairs are up to the home owner. oregon contractors have gotten twitchy about non-licensed people doing work. they have sued old handyman types for taking their (union) jobs.
anyway, glad it was not a total bust. seeing the construction of hives outside a box is pretty informative for your own beekeeping.