Had a swarm call yesterday they said 10 ft in the tree. We made a bucket catch and went after it was not 10 foot so just did a practice run. I found the original hive in a tree next to the property bait hive is coming next. https://youtu.be/IR2uZwtBkpU
I've got a bucket mounted on a painters pole that extends to 15 ft. They come in handy. I have been able to catch swarms up to 25 ft high with a small ladder.
I went out to look at and give estimates for 2 bee removal jobs that called me yesterday. The first one didn?t have a single bee in it. Apparently she saw the scouts checking it out. Luckily I had pictures of where they were located. The owner wasn?t home so I called her later and advised that she caulk up the hole and the entire trim board before the swarm arrives.
I went to the second house and had the same situation. Then I heard the bees and looked up, the swarm was on its way in. Luckily most of the bees did not know where the entrance was and were all over the roof. I searched for the queen for a long while. I finally found her and had her in the q catcher but she got out. I found the entrance under the drip flashing and stuffed grass in it. Then the swarm balled up about 6? from the entrance. My wife, Judy, brought me a bee vacuum and I was able to vacuum them up.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on March 12, 2020, 05:44:13 AM
I went out to look at and give estimates for 2 bee removal jobs that called me yesterday. The first one didn?t have a single bee in it. Apparently she saw the scouts checking it out. Luckily I had pictures of where they were located. The owner wasn?t home so I called her later and advised that she caulk up the hole and the entire trim board before the swarm arrives.
I went to the second house and had the same situation. Then I heard the bees and looked up, the swarm was on its way in. Luckily most of the bees did not know where the entrance was and were all over the roof. I searched for the queen for a long while. I finally found her and had her in the q catcher but she got out. I found the entrance under the drip flashing and stuffed grass in it. Then the swarm balled up about 6? from the entrance. My wife, Judy, brought me a bee vacuum and I was able to vacuum them up.
very lucky good catch, I switched to a different queen catchers after my clips seemed to fail every time(https://pull03-glorybee.netdna-ssl.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/302x302/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/p/l/plastic-queen-cell-2.jpg)
Jim how did she get out? Was this a virgin queen?
jtcmedic
How does your queen catcher work? Looks more like a holding cage?
Has a door and slides on top, haven?t had one escape. They can feed her from the out side. So far have been good for 3 days on cut outs not as easy as a hair clip style
Quote from: Ben Framed on March 12, 2020, 08:38:31 AM
Jim how did she get out? Was this a virgin queen?
jtcmedic
How does your queen catcher work? Looks more like a holding cage?
I opened it to see if there was a queen in there. I did this non stop for over half an hour before I caught her.
Jim Altmiller
Thanks Jim, that could happen to any of us. We want to be sure we have her when we attempt to capture her. I would peek too. lol
Some folks do not like them, but this is the reason that I like and use the plastic see through clips, though I have a couple stainless steel ones. The drawback is, as you know sometimes the joint hole can break. I ordered some straight from china so cheap that I am ashamed to tell you because it does not sound true. This way, I have plenty of spares in the case that I happen to break one. But honestly I have only broken one, that I can recall and certainly no more that two at the most. I love them. Keep up the good work with your cutouts. I would like to accompany you and give you a helping hand, but North Mississippi is just too far. lol. Does Bob Sim still help you?
Phillip Hall
Phillip,
Thanks.
The reason I had to open the queen catcher over and over again was because it was completely dry full of bees and I could not see through the packed bees until I opened it.
Bobsims and I have not had a cutout for several months now but yes, we do still work together. The last removal I had a call on Bob and I looked at it together. We recommend that customer leave the bees stay. It was in the top (24?up) of the entrance to a large department store that was open every day of the week and they would have to close for the day of the removal. They could not do that.
Jim Altmiller
Well released them on Saturday and they were out doing some orientation flights. Will look in on them Monday to see if we got the queen.