I'm doing my first trap out. Should I be concerned because the home owner tried to kill the hive before they called to have them removed. There were 4 cans of bug spray on the ground when I arrived. Are the bees dead already and they don't know it?
Don't waste your time.
In reality those bees are very stressed right now. Not to mention all the comb has poison contamination. High chance the bees won't survive a cutout. And the hive isn't safe. Would you eat honey from a hive that was poisoned?
Ditto on walking away. If for some reason you do do it, double your price.
Jim
I walked away from a trap-out the other day because the owner said he sprayed them an insecticide.
I've been turning down cut-outs this year because I simply don't have enough time for some of the crazy places these folks are finding their bees.. If it was just a simple swarm, then I'd be all over it. But most people around here are ignorant enough to get a can of raid on a swarm and then whine about bees getting behind their wall..
One guy this year likened the prospects of me cutting some bees out from under a floor of his balcony (above the front porch) as "a gift"... SORRY! A bee "gift" would be pointing me in the direction of a swarm I can simply shake off into a box and carry to one of my hives. [=
Or I hear, "Why does it cost so much? I'm giving you the bees." Which I reply so does the trash company pay you for the trash that you give them. Also I have to house those bees, I got to feed them, I requeen ( I am in AHB territory) and then hope they don't abscond or die in the winter.
Tell them the price of a package of bees..
Those bees are delivered to your post office for you to pick up. You KNOW they should be decent bees coming from the package producer.
With a cut out, you may find they are infested with mites or have other diseases. They may be meaner than a wet cat.. Adding them to your Apiary your still going to have those drones mating with your virgin queens until you can re queen that hive.
To pick up a package you dont have to drive far, you dont have to work, removing walls and replacing walls / siding / etc..
I consider the bees in a cut out worth about $50.00 If I can drive 4 miles to get there, remove a soffit, cut them out, replace the soffit and drive away.. I "MIGHT" do it for free.
Anything that goes above and beyond the $50.00 mark I have to charge for. I tell them my price, they get upset because I am getting free bees. I go home..
A week later I get a call to come do the job after they get a few more "quotes" from the pest removal companies.
I ask right up front if they have sprayed the hive, and explain to them the consequences if I cut open the first comb and it reeks of raid or pesticide.
If they deny spraying even then, and I find it HAS been sprayed. I load up and leave. Usually they own up and I charge that extra $50.00..
If the queen wasn't killed by the spray she may well be sterile. Everything you use to cut that hive out will be contaminated. It will have to be scrubbed scrupulously before you can use it again. Depending on how long ago they did it, the honey the bees abandoned may be fermenting.. It can be a REAL mess to deal with. Definitely not worth it unless your price is met.
I had a call last week from a customer that had bees in there dryer vent, same please as last year. Last year they sprayed them and then called for them to bee removed. A friend did that removal.
I asked Them what they had sprayed them with and they said it was an organic spray so it was safe for the bees. In the picture that I had them send, there was a huge bug spray stain all the way around try vent. I turned it down. They kept insisting that the spray was safe because it was organic. If it wasn't going to hurt the bees, then why spray it?
Another couple wanted me to remove a swarm from a tree. After talking to them at length, I found out that it had been there for 2 weeks. It told them I would bee charging for a removal. They insisted that it should bee for free, "I thought they were valuable". I explained about the time it would take to remove them and then after you get them in a hive, they could then abscond and move out. I did not do that removal either.
Jim
Did a removal a few weeks ago and it was literally a ball of bees a little bigger than a grapefruit.. They were located just up under their mobile home that lacked underpinning and OH SO easy to get to! We told the lady and the guy that depending on what we saw, it would be $100 or $75. Long story short--they were EASY PEASY to scrape down into a nuc (FINALLY spotted the queen on this removal), cut the three tiny combs off, and take off down the road.
We then left them in the nuc and swapped places with a STRONG nuc so that the "wild" bees got the foragers from the other nuc.. And now all is right with the world, so far.. [=