A Bucket Of Bees

[Beeboy01]

This week I had what must of been the easiest feral hive pickup ever.  My neighbor who is moving gave me a call about a hive of bees on her property. Swung by and found that the bees had moved into a 5 gallon bucket that had a loose lid. I came by after dark and gave them a light smoking then snapped the lid down on the bucket. Took the hive home pulled the top off the bucket and found about eight pieces of comb hanging down off the lid. Since I didn't want to disturb the hive by putting it into frames I placed the lid with the comb into a deep supported by foundation filled frames. The hive didn't look very healthy probably because the bucket was about 1/4 full of hardened roofing tar with a lot of dead bees mixed in.
  I'm not sure if the hive will make it but at least it stands a chance now with a little help. Wonder if it was from one of my hives?

[Ben Framed]

Congratulations on the bucket of bees! Being the tar was hardened, they will probably be alright. Did you find the queen? Just goes to show that bees will pick some strange places to set up housekeeping! Are you in Africanized bee territory? From what I understand they, Africanized, will even set up in underground water meters.

[Beeboy01]

Not sure if they are africanized or not there have been some reports of AHB in the area. I'm leaving them along till they get settled and hoping that I got the queen. Need to pull some honey off the rest of the hives and have too many irons in the fire right now.

[BeeMaster2]

I once removed bees from a truck toolbox that had seven dust in the bottom of the box. The bottom was also filled with dead bees. I had to throw away about 100 pounds of honey because I did not know it it was contaminated. That hive did just fine and I they survived for several years.
Jim Altmiller

[Ben Framed]

I once removed bees from a truck toolbox that had seven dust in the bottom of the box. The bottom was also filled with dead bees. I had to throw away about 100 pounds of honey because I did not know it it was contaminated. That hive did just fine and I they survived for several years.
Jim Altmiller

Woo that was a lot of honey, I don't blame you, I would have not wanted to eat it either!