911 called, need to kill a hive - but with what?

Grandma_DOG · August 14, 2015, 01:53:54 AM

OK folks, I've been a beek for many years, and now volunteer with the county on bee emergencies. There was a bee attack this evening and I'll need to remove/destroy the hive tomorrow morning. This time, I get to choose how to take it out. It is somewhere in a old tractor.

First, as this is a hot hive, I do not want to save it. If a hive gets so bad 911 calls me, I'm fine putting it down, but I want to save honey and time.

I've done my share of cutouts. They are long, laborious, and tiring. This time, because I'm up against a nasty hive and the temperatures will be about 100, I want to kill it fast and save the honey. Has anyone got experience with using sulpher to kill a hive?

If so, what source/brand and how did you use it?

I have to get answers by 9am tomorrow, or I'll just suit up, use a dryvac and suck all the bees off to their doom.

richter1978 · August 14, 2015, 07:26:21 AM

I saw mentioned somewhere that dry ice will do the trick.

rwlaw · August 14, 2015, 08:18:15 AM

A bottle of dish soap in a five gallon bucket of water and douse the hive first. A spray bottle of 1/4 dish soap 3/4 water to knock down the stragglers ought to do it.
CO2 works, but you have to seal the hive up to do it.
edit, missed the part about the sulfur. Aren't those sticks for ground squirrel/gofers (up here I think the brand name "the destroyer") are mostly sulfur? If you use em, be careful, they get hot PDQ!

iddee · August 14, 2015, 08:19:05 AM

I vote for the vacuum. RW, he wants to keep the honey.

JackM · August 14, 2015, 08:25:23 AM

I think sulphur will damage the honey. Can you somehow use exhaust gas from a car?

Michael Bush · August 14, 2015, 08:44:06 AM

>I think sulphur will damage the honey.

No. It won't. Soap will, but it won't poison the honey for other bees that will rob it out. Sulfur is probably the best if you want to save the honey. Vacuums are very efficient at killing bees...

BeeMaster2 · August 14, 2015, 01:14:18 PM

Sulfur was used for a long time before the langstroth hive came along so the beek could take the honey from the skep. They would place the skep over a hole in the ground and some how, I think burn it in the hole.
Jim

Blacksheep · August 14, 2015, 06:19:43 PM

I think I would use the vacum with full suction and close them up tight and not use chemicals!

Dallasbeek · August 14, 2015, 06:27:26 PM

McCartney had to have an answer before 9 today, so whatever he decided, it's done. Hope he'll get back to us with a report. BTW, I couldn't make the link for his book work, but you can go to his site and find it. Looks like a good book to add to my collection

Grandma_DOG · August 15, 2015, 02:55:19 AM

The hive is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBO0SG2WaLo&feature=youtu.be

No way to get inside the gearbox without a torch. Hive was hot, so I plugged the holes and poured in 1 cup of gasoline.

D Coates · August 17, 2015, 01:48:50 PM

I don't think you were getting the honey out of there no mater what you did. Clearly is a piece of old farm equipment, any idea what?

Dallasbeek · August 17, 2015, 03:52:25 PM

Quote from: Grandma_DOG on August 14, 2015, 01:53:54 AM
It is somewhere in a old tractor.

Tractor kind of farm equipment

Wombat2 · August 17, 2015, 10:39:05 PM

I had to kill a hive yesterday that got into the space between floor above and ceiling below - They had only been in there 24 hours but were coming out light fittings and no way could they be extracted without a lot of damage to the structure.

Got a cockroach/flea bomb - the pressure pack can type with the click on that starts a vertical jet until the can is empty. Strapped it to a pole,started it and held it up to the outside entrance in the eave overhang. By the time the can had finished there were no more bees hanging around.

Annoying thing is it was probably one of my own swarms

iddee · August 17, 2015, 10:46:45 PM

All you had to do was put a wire cone over the entrance. They had no food, so would have left within a few hours, a day at the most.

chux · August 18, 2015, 08:13:33 AM

Quote from: iddee on August 17, 2015, 10:46:45 PM
All you had to do was put a wire cone over the entrance. They had no food, so would have left within a few hours, a day at the most.

It only makes sense that this would work. I tried it twice this year. The first time, it worked. The second time...The bees had been in the wall for a couple of days when I put the cone on. After a few days, bees stopped coming out, but the swarm was still on the space. No bees coming out. No way to get in. I ended up having to break into the space. I found the bees clustered inside, moving very sluggish. I vacced them up, and put them in a nuc with honey. They perked up and are doing great.

Just saying, sometimes they don't follow the rules. I also wonder if those bees would have continued to poor out the light fixtures???

chux · August 18, 2015, 08:15:20 AM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on August 14, 2015, 01:14:18 PM
Sulfur was used for a long time before the langstroth hive came along so the beek could take the honey from the skep. They would place the skep over a hole in the ground and some how, I think burn it in the hole.
Jim

You may have seen this series of films. For any that haven't, here is a link to one in the series. I enjoyed watching them all. In this one, they show how beeks in Germany killed brood with sulphur, before removing the comb/honey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pozwoU0FKuM

BeeMaster2 · August 18, 2015, 02:43:31 PM

Chic,
That is where I got the idea from. I had forgotten where I saw it.
Jim

KeyLargoBees · August 19, 2015, 08:47:54 AM

Very Interesting video....wonder how much its changed from then to now?

chux · August 19, 2015, 10:32:01 AM

Quote from: KeyLargoBees on August 19, 2015, 08:47:54 AM
Very Interesting video....wonder how much its changed from then to now?

If you found that one interesting, bee sure to go back and look at the entire series. It walks through an entire year in beekeeping from the '70's in Germany. Skep beekeeping. This may have been one of the last large skep operations. The documentary was probably a way to...well...document a dying art. Most were probably already converted to a more contemporary style with movable frames by the late '70's.