Got another bunch.

[Jerrymac]

This construction contractor I know had his daughter contact my daughter through instant messaging. He had a big bunch of bees in this house he is working on. It's a two story house and the bees were on the bottom of the top floor. The ceiling had not been put in as the house is just being framed.

He said they stopped work Friday about noonish and there were no bees there. They had moved in sometime this weekend. The actual buiding contractor on this job call some pest control company. The guy showed up, looked at the bees, told them all to have fun with them, and left. He wasn't going to mess with them as he wasn't equiped for bees.

So I go out and the mess is about ten feet off the floor, up in a trangle of floor joist. That part ended up as a triangle because of the way the house is being built. It is a nightmare. An architects drug induced idea I guess. Besides the usual right angled walls there are walls that shoot off at different angles and there are a couple of round places.

Anyway, as it is hard to reach up in this area, I break out the beevac thinking it is just a swarm. Started pulling the bees out of there and found three combs. The center comb was about three inches long and about four inches hanging down. A comb on each side was about 1/2 to one inch smaller in diameter. There was a nickle sized comb started also. So I guess there were really four. The smallest cell measure was 4.8 and the largest was 5.0, but 4.9 made up the majority.  

I didn't think it happened so quickly but there was a whole bunch of eggs in there. Those bees weren't wasting any time. Built comb and laid eggs in a couple of days.

I hope I got the queen alive. Will have to check in a few days.

[Anonymous]

Must be nice!  I had 7 or 8 calls in one week, but nothing for the last three weeks.  I wouldn't mind another call or two.

[Barny]

Go Jerrymac!  I would much prefer to nab swarms... so much less work.  But then again you have a wonderful beevac to help you.

[Jerrymac]

I might have messed up. I checked these bees Wednesday. That's two weeks and two days after getting them. They had built some comb and had some uncapped honey in there, but I could see no brood. I figured I might have killed the queen while capturing the colony. So I took the hive apart and let the bees find another home. I left one of the frames of partially drawn comb sitting upside down, out in the open, in front of the hives. There was only a bit of uncapped honey as far as I know in the cells. There were bees clinging to it when I sat it down. That was Wednesday. Today is Friday. It rained last night and was drizzling a little today. The sun finally broke through a little while ago, and I went out to the hives. The comb in that frame has fallen over, and it is still covered with bees. A bunch of bees are huddled up on a post that the comb is against.

I know all of these bees fly as they had just swarmed. There is no brood on this comb that I can tell.
Could there still be a queen?
Why have they not gone somewhere else?

[Jerrymac]

Tomorrow will be a week since I dumped this hive out on the ground. I just got back from the bee yard and those bees are still out there on that piece of comb, gathered under it, and congrigating up the leg of the hive stand I have the hives on.

They appear to be looking for something in the comb, something to eat maybe, because every time I look in on them there are some poking their heads way down in there. I do see bees returning with pollen and possibly nectar to the little group. I have a jar of sugar water out that none of the bees from anywhere seem to be interested in. Just the ants and Japanese Beetles are messing with that.

I can't decide if I want to;

A) Leave them alone and see what they will eventually do

B) Place the comb and the bees in another hive body and see what they do

C) Shake them off the comb and disperse the group and see if they will find another hive to call home.

D) Any suggestions?

[latebee]

Ok, depending on how many bees are still hanging around--why not try giving them a frame of brood and eggs from another hive so that they may be able to make a new queen and keep that group alive and growing. This has worked for me a few times on wild colonies that I have extracted, and either lost or roughed up the queen enough so that she was not capable of laying any more eggs. I am like you I just love to collect the wild ones from either trees or buildings--- almost as much as keeping them in hives! Or maybe I just need the rush of getting stung every now and then :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Michael Bush]

>They appear to be looking for something in the comb, something to eat maybe, because every time I look in on them there are some poking their heads way down in there.

Of course they are always looking for something to eat.  They are on the comb because they are looking for a home.  Shake them off into one of the hives and remove the comb so they can't collect on it.