first cutout help

[tandemrx]

someone nearby has an open air bee hive attached to an airconditioner.

Asked if I could remove it.  I am willing and I think able.  I haven't seen the colony yet

I don't have a bee vaccum.

If I just cut the comb and put in frames in a hive will that be enough, or do I really need to vaccum the bees into a hive as well?

[G3farms]

A bee vac in not really a necessity (how did beeks of old do it before vacs). I call my bee vac crowd control, just gets the masses out of the way. Without the vac you will need to work just a little slower, smoke will move bees very well as will a little shake of the comb.

Yes you can just cut the combs off and rubber band into frames, be sure to keep the comb oriented in the up direction.

This late in the year you will need to feed, feed, feed!

Check them in a week to see if there are any eggs (if you can not locate the queen when you do the cut out), if not consider doing a combine with a weaker hive and then split them in the spring.

[tandemrx]

Glad it wasn't far.  To be fair, when I called the guy back after we got the message, he said that he wasn't sure that it was honey bees.  When I asked him if it was waxy type of "honey comb" he said it was gray . . . so my immediate thought was wasps.

But my wife and I biked over anyway just to make sure.

It was a beautiful nest though . . . I think bald-faced hornets (a bit too dark to see them well and I didn't want to get to close because it was not easy to run away from the site as it was on an overgrown slope.

Oh well, thanks for the reply anyway.

[Kathyp]

i ask people to email me pictures of what they are seeing.  at this time of the year it's almost always either wasps or yellowjackets.  did get caught by surprise by one.  the bees were actually building comb in the tree.  that's not to common up here. 
anyway....something to try with future calls if you want.  saves the unnecessary trips.

[hardwood]

Cool nest though!

Scott

[tandemrx]

We were bicycling out to that area anyway, so it wasn't a wasted trip.  Figured if it was honey bees we could then come back later with equipment.

When the guy told me over the phone that the hive was gray I was pretty certain it wasn't honey bees.

Nothing lost, something gained (saw a very cool nest).

[JP]

I had a call on one like that this past week in a palm tree, wasn't quite as pretty as that one though.


...JP

[lenape13]

I have gotten so many calls like that.  I have decided not to do any more removals.  When I have asked people to email me pictures, they get nasty and say things like "I know the difference between bees and wasps...", but they don't.  Plus they're usually 30 feet up in an unaccessable area.  It just isn't worth using up what little free time I have.  I'll stick to catching swarms and splitting my existing hives to increase my numbers.  It's safer and far less stress on me, as well as the bees.

[AllenF]

So did you get those "bees"?