Video of My First Beehive Cutout

[Devbee]

Hello beekeeping friends!

We discovered a beehive living in my mom's house inside the eave/soffett, and so this past Saturday my beekeeper friend and me and my wife cut the hive out.

I used my digital camera for taking the video and captured a fair amount of the process. My mom stayed inside and fought the bees that found their way in the house (about 10 of them), while my wife Katie, my friend Doug, and I donned our suits and worked on the outside.

Katie and Doug escaped being stung, happily, while I was stung twice: Once when the fold of the veil touched the back of my neck, allowing a bee to sting me there, and then a bee managed to crawl in between the two zippers that attach the veil to the suit, getting into my face area, which was disconcerting.

The bee stung me in the mustache/lip area and then flew in my nose, which was an unpleasant sensation. However, due to Katie and Doug’s quick thinking, only one bee got inside my veil.

We collected around 25 pounds of honey, which we will have to crush and strain. The strange thing was that we found little to no brood: no eggs, not much larva, and hardly any capped cells.  The brood was all drone brood and was in a spotty pattern.  There was a brood area and many bees clustered around the area, but just not any worker brood that we could see.

We brushed as many bees as we could into a hive box and left the hive box there overnight, then I brushed more bees into it the next day, but I don't know if there is a queen in this hive due to the lack of worker brood.  What do you think could have happened?  We did see one queen cell that had been broken open--it looked at least several months to perhaps over a year old.

Bee Cutout Video

[Jerrymac]

It sounds like they are queenless. Could place a frame of brood in with them and see if they try to make a queen.

[bassman1977]

Way to go.  Queen or no queen...that's good stuff.

[steveouk]

Cool video !

[JP]

Liked it way to go! Like Jerry said add a frame of brood to them and they perhaps will make a queen. I'm surprised the bees weren't really aggressive. That hive was not queenright. Keep 'em comin'.

....JP