Itsy Bitsy Hive Combined With Sidewalk Bees

JP · October 20, 2010, 02:58:48 AM

Little puny colony with small but good laying queen combined with a colony that was external on a tree about fifteen feet up.

I was going to remove the external colony but the city cut the tree down and displaced the bees.

I wound up combining the two colonies and gave the sidewalk queen to my friend Jordan tonight.

She will give that queen to the "parking lot bees" tomorrow.

...JP

Itsy Bitsy Hive Combined With Sidewalk Bees

AllenF · October 20, 2010, 02:32:29 PM

That is great to look at especially when they were fanning on the front of the nuc. How come you didn't get Jordan to help?

hardwood · October 20, 2010, 04:53:55 PM

Yeah Bro, we want to see more of Jordan!

Scott

JP · October 20, 2010, 07:11:43 PM

Look at that, two grown and very married men, drooling over a young woman they can never even shake hands with.

I saw her last night when I gave her the queen, of course my wife and Jordan's boyfriend was right there.

All I'm saying. :-D

...JP

hardwood · October 20, 2010, 07:59:35 PM

Grown and very married yes...not dead though :-D

Scott

AliciaH · October 20, 2010, 11:43:09 PM

Okay, I have a question, JP!

This is what scares me about cut outs. I saw you smoke the little hole, but then you cut the siding out much higher and closer to the window. How do you figure out where the bees really are? Or is it that you've just done so many of these that you just know? Or do you just assume that because standard framing is verticle that the bees will settle to the top of the run? How do you know there isn't a fire block in there somewhere?

I'd love to do cut outs, but I really don't want to be like that pest guy over in Houston just ripping (or cutting) off siding, ya know?

JP · October 21, 2010, 01:49:16 AM

Alicia, usually bees pick the highest horizontal spot in a vertical void to start building from. Sometimes its the first horizontal place but with standard framing it'll usually be a top plate, in this case the underside of the window sill.

In most cases I am able to locate exactly where the bees are.

Once that part is out of the way its figuring out the least intrusive way to expose the colony and remove them.

...JP

jhs494 · October 23, 2010, 10:12:12 AM

This is another great video JP. Very interesting watching them combine with the other hive. The queen that you took from the bottom of the nuc looks like a good size queen. If you watch close you can see her walking on the ground as you are spotting her.

Great job with the video and Thanks for sharing it with us!

Joe

JP · October 23, 2010, 02:18:38 PM

Thanks for the feedback Joe!

...JP

annette · October 23, 2010, 11:54:35 PM

I have to watch this again later on. I am a bit confused about what exactly is happening at the end.

Catch this later on

JP · October 24, 2010, 10:59:51 AM

Annette, I was told the tree housing the external colony was cut down and that bees were displaced and on the sidewalk.

After I removed the itsy bitsy colony, I had roughly 90 minutes of daylight left for them to orient to the new set up so I went and picked my wife up from work as her car was in the shop.

My wife and I went to survey the scene where the bees were displaced all over the sidewalk. That footage you see and hear me discussing how I put the empty deep nuc next to them and footage of them marching into the nuc.

The queen actually went underneath the nuc so there were bees in the nuc but also some underneath with her. I wasn't sure where she was really, so I left the nuc and went back to the other job to seal the tiny colony.

We then went back to where the nuc was and that is where I combined the two colonies, right there on the sidewalk.

I decided to give the queen from the displaced hive to my friend Jordan as she and Albert lived close by.

The next morning Jordan went by her bee yard and gave the queen to the "parking lot bees" as they were trying to make another queen and being late in the season, i thought it best to just give them a queen now.

...JP