First Cut out and WOW

csims723 · June 11, 2010, 10:28:27 PM

I ran an ad in the Georgia market bulletin and got the first call for a cut out. We arrived at the house and found a early 1900 balloon frame house. We estimated the the hive to be huge and boy were we right. The fun began at 10 am and we cleaned up at 10 pm. The hive was 10 feet tall and 24 inches wide with about 100 pounds of capped honey. I have never seen anything like it and probably never will again. This colony had survived untouched by human hands for about 5 years in the abandoned house. The new owners were allergic to bees and wanted them gone. So we gave it a go. Boy were we in for a suprise. We set up the brushkill bee vac and started gently removing wall boards trying not to alarm the colony. Didn't work to well. We had thousands of angry guard bees hitting us all day. We tried to take a break and walked 600 yards from the hive and they persisted. We finally had to learn to drink water thru our veils to stay hydrated. After 6 hours of pulling capped honey we got to the brood comb. We kept seeing the queen playing pee-a-boo out f a crack in the wall. We left the hive for about 15 minutes and she came out on the brood comb. We cut this section away and placed it in a frame and got her in the hive box. The bees started moving to her but did not calm down at all. We ended up filling two deep hive bodies and three honey supers with bees and still had a large mass of bees left on the honey that was above the brood. I voted on leaving the hive at the location to try to get the remaining bees in the hive. We still have a second colony to cut out today in the same wall and I am hoping that they will be alot more calm than the monster hive. I will follow up later gotta run finish up.

AllenF · June 11, 2010, 10:41:44 PM

Great job on the cut out. Did you get any pic of the hive? I had my subscription to the market bulletin run out back in March and emailed them twice and still have not gotten back on their list. We use to run our pick you own blueberries in there, but weird people who did not understand berries were always calling, but they kept the bushes picked out. It is a great place to advertise, and the price is right.

csims723 · June 11, 2010, 10:56:18 PM

I have a video of the cut out but have not uploaded it yet. ill post a link here when i get it up. This thing was huge. This hive was there for over 30 years per a neighbor who stopped by today. i believe it was there along time since we found comb that was like ash it was so brittle. We found loads of abandoned comb and the bee count was astronomical. We filled 2 deep and 2 supers with bees with no drawn comb in the supers and the bee vac would not pull any more due to air flow resistance.

Highlandsfreedom · June 11, 2010, 11:29:55 PM

Man that sounds like too much fun!!! Cant wait for the video.

JP · June 12, 2010, 12:58:42 AM

Did you use your smoker before accessing the void space?

...JP

montauk170 · June 12, 2010, 03:17:37 AM

Wow! I can't wait to see the video! Get some rest!

buzzbee · June 12, 2010, 04:35:18 PM

csims723
I don't think you have link posting ability yet,but when you have the video ready,make a post and notify a mod which post and we will be glad to add the link to your post. can't wait to see it!
Buzzbee(Ken)

jhs494 · June 12, 2010, 05:35:57 PM

Wow, nice size cut out from the sound of it. It is great that a beekeeper got the bees instead of them being sprayed.
I hope they make a nice hive of bees for you.
Good luck with them and thanks for sharing the story with us!
Keep us posted as things progress.

Nyomomma · June 13, 2010, 09:55:01 AM

Oh my goodness, that was a huge hive! :shock: I can't wait to see videos.

csims723 · June 17, 2010, 10:59:25 PM

I am proud to announce that the cut out was a success. The queen is now laying lots of eggs and the hive has welded the brood comb into the frames. We successfully saved a huge hive of bees from a 100 year old house. Woo Hoo . I loaded my smoker up in the beginning but it was no use. These bees seemed to get more agitated from the smoker to the point that they were flying into the opening trying to attack the smoker. We then tried a spray bottle with sugar water and misting the bees and this to had no effect so we just had to man up and just get it done. We had at least 1000 bees swarming us the whole day. After 2 hours you did not even see the bees in your face. I am still working on the video i will let a mod know when I get it posted so you all can see it. It was impressive. Thanks for the interest.

Shep1478 · June 18, 2010, 01:09:42 AM

Great Job! Like everyone else, I cant wait to see this one!

Jim