I promised JP (who kindly talked me through this cut out yesterday morning) some pictures.
We found this hive at the front of a home deep in the floor joists between the first and second floors, so we removed it from the ceiling. Fortunately, the homeowner hired a contractor for the deconstruction and reconstruction because the job eventually got odd.
After this removal, we tackled what we thought was a second hive...also between the first and second floor joist but at the rear of the home. We immediately located 3 very fresh combs of honey and a few bees. No brood, no queen, no nothing. We removed the comb, and I sprayed Bee Quick to see if any other bees were hiding somewhere. Maybe 100 bees left through the entrance and clung to the outside brick.
I thought the remainder of this hive may be between living in the space between an ajoining stud, so we cut a small hole...nothing. I used the laser heat-sensor thingy...nothing. We put our ears to the walls, to the ceiling, to the floor...nothing. At the homeowner's request, we cut a hole between the ajoining floor joists...nothing. We went upstairs and cut a hole between wall studs above...nothing. A few holes later...still nothing. We removed some siding from the outside of the house...nothing.
I kept thinking that if I were JP or Hardwood, I could probably find this hive, but I'm not JP or Hardwood, and I never told anyone I could locate any hidden bees. I simply said I would remove the bees we found. So, we stuffed insulation everywhere and closed it up.
Friends: Why would we have found only 3 very new combs of honey when the homeowner says those bees have been there for months?
-Liz
P.S. These pictures do not show how messy this thing got. We're in such a honey flow right now that this thing was honey honey honey everywhere.
(http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5602/lizwithlongcomb.jpg)
(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4882/nicolacutscomb.jpg)
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/5483/ourfirstglimpseofcomb.jpg)
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1420/newcombwithbeesandhoney.jpg)
(http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/9369/oldemptycomb.jpg)
Nice pics and does look pretty messy! :shock :shock:
Good job! I couldn't say about the small colony without looking at it but do you think it could have been an after swarm and the virgin queen didn't make it back from mating??
Scott
Hope you had some plastic down on the floor. Great job. No ideas other than Scott's conclusion on the mystery bees.
I'll go with the virgin-queen-that-never-returned theory, Scott. Thanks.
And, yes, beyondthesidewalks, the contractor thought to cover the floor with rosin paper. Thank goodness. Ugh.
-Liz
Great job and great pics.
add a stack of 4X4 tarps to your kit :-D don't think you can have to many of those on hand!
new comb and no queen? wonder if the bees drifted back to the original hive if/when the queen didn't make it back.