Last Thursday night we attempted another bee removal. It was about an hours drive away, in Wynberg. All we knew was that a swarm had moved into an owl box located high up in a massive yellow wood tree. We thought it would be a quick an easy removal: simply use the extension ladder and carry the owl box down.
When we arrived, we were shocked to see the size of the owl box. It looked more like the size of a large dog box! We were quite nervous as to whether we would even be able to do the removal, but instead of standing around and wasting time thinking and planning how we would do it, we just jumped in and got started, figuring things out along the way.
The box was fastened to planks drilled into the tree, so we had our hands full trying to use the smoker to keep the bees calm, while handling the grinder and saw to loosen the box. Quite a few bruises were acquired in the process.
The box was also filled with holes, so we couldn't simply block the main entrance with a cloth like we had planned, because there were tones of entrances all around. We had to wrap this massive box with cloth as best we could, also without loosing balance on the extended ladder. We then stapled the cloth in place using a staple gun. Of course, it was impossible to get it properly sealed, but at least the majority of the entrances were closed.
We then wrapped the box up like a gift using a ski rope and flung the rope over a branch. One of us then held onto the rope from the ground and held it in place while the other cut the last supportive beams of the box. I was very nervous that as soon as all the supportive beams were gone, the box would be too heavy for me and I would let it drop to the ground (quite a substantial drop it would've been)
Luckily I was able to keep control of lowering the box as it was guided through the branches while climbing down the ladder.
This whole process sounds simple, but let me tell you, it was very messy and physically taxing. It took us about 2 hours.
When the box reached the ground, we tried to pick it up so that we could load it onto the bakkie. But as we used every bit of strength we had to lift this extremely heavy hive, it completely came apart! Bees everywhere...
The box was old and rotten, I'm surprised it didn't come apart mid air while lowering it with the ski rope.
Anyways, no time to think, we needed this box covered, immediately! We had another large cloth that we laid open next to the box, and somehow we managed to hold each piece of the box together when picking it up and placing it on top of the cloth. We then wrapped it up again using the staple gun and again did the back breaking work of carrying it and lifting it onto the bakkie, which unfortunately was quite some distance away.
We drove back home and left the hive at a nursery where we had an arrangement. Ideally, we should have transferred the swarm and all it's comb over into a new hive, but this was easily another hours work, and it was already nearly midnight.
We could then only go back to check on them Saturday morning. Unfortunately, all their comb had broken apart during the removal and vibration of the bakkie. So for the bees to survive, they would have to find a new home fast. When we arrived Saturday morning, they had clustered together in a nearby tree, and scouter bees were flying around looking for a new suitable place to take the swarm.
In this situation, one would typically place a hive underneath the tree and literally shake the bees of so that they fall into the hive. After attempting this about 4 times, we saw the bees were not interested. They kept flying back up into the tree. So we strapped the hive right next to them into the tree and left. We also left honey from their previous hive in the new hive to attract them.
When we came back in the afternoon, we were so excited to see that they had moved into the hive. We will leave it there for about another week or two so that they can settle and the queen can start laying some eggs. Then we will relocate them to our bee yard where our other hives are standing.
This is a very strong swarm of bees, and we are very happy to now have another hive with different genetics. That is why we were eager to do the removal, because the more bees you have that come from different areas, the wider variety of genetics you have.
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