Any beekeepers here?

Aaron_W

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It appears we have had a hive of honey bees set up shop in my front porch.

We have a semi-enclosed front porch and they seem to have moved into one of the short walls. There is a small gap on the underside to let water drain, and there is a consistent flow of bees in and out. I'm assuming they have just moved in as we have never seen a large number of bees around the house before, and it only looks to be maybe 20-30 at the moment.

We know bees are good to have around and do not want to hurt them, we don't even mind having them on the property if there was a way to lure them into a more appropriate location. Just don't want them in the wall of the house.

Don't know if they would like one of those commercial bee boxes better, or failing that I'm guessing there are people who will relocate a hive without destroying it.

We have been talking about planting some fruit trees so having a local tribe of bees wouldn't be a bad thing.


Thanks
 
Put a listing in your local craiglist under farm or agriculture, someone will come and get them, or you could get a vale and gloves and gently move the queen and bees surrounding her to the new home, the workers will follow. Avoid working bees on cloudy days if you can, they are much more tame when its sunny. If you work them too roughly they will let you know with the intensity of their buzz. If you are nervous and uptight they pick up on it real quick. Need to be relaxed to be a successful beekeeper.
 
I don't know about your area, but around here a stray colony gets rapid attention from the local beekeeping community. They have a kind of hotline amongst themselves to go out and rescue the bees as soon as they are reported. Colonies are always in demand.

My neighbour keeps bees, a few hives about thirty feet from my back porch actually, and they're no problem. You should be able to contact someone in your area, local agriculture office maybe or something similar, and get a contact for keepers in your region. Probably want to get to it soon -- my Dad extricated a colony in the wall of my grandmothers house that had been there for a bit. The wall was just full of honey!

Good luck!

-frank
 
We have a local non-profit reptile rescue group who will come and get rattlesnakes and other "problem" reptiles, so I'm sure we have a bee friendly hive remover, just need to find them.

I was hoping it might be as simple as buy them a bee condo that they can't resist. :)

Reptile Rescue.jpgreptile close up.jpg
 
Reptiles don’t fly and sting, or make honey or, pollinate or ?
We used a vacume cleaner / and a garbage bag at nite when they had to go .
 
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Yep, best to post an add on your local craigs list or something. A local bee keeper will probably want them.

You just drop them into a deep box with a few filled out brood frames or a medium etc. I built little mini brooders that take full size frames for the purpose of catching small colonies. Everyone has their own techniques, depends on how aggressive the colony is too. Its a lot of work though, I don't like messing with them much these days. Its easier to raise your own, I've been attacked by a colony I didn't relize had been raided by some nasty black bees and its not painless at all. Lost a few days of work till the swelling went down. Best to fully suit up till you know what your dealing with, I always protect my face now. Learned my lesson, don't always assume everything in there are gentle honey bees.

You may or may not have gentle honey bees, there are so many variables these days.
 
Reptiles don’t fly and sting, or make honey or, pollinate or ?
We used a vacume cleaner / and a garbage bag at nite when they had to go .

No just figured if we have snake rescues, we probably have bee rescues. Bees make honey, snakes eat mice, spiders eat annoying bugs all are welcome near me, just not in my house. :)


I was able to talk to someone I know in another county who keeps bees and he was able to give me some good information about the process. I can call around tomorrow to try and find someone local to come and find them a new home.

It sounds like the little drainage slot on my porch is designed very much like the entrance of a bee box, I'm kind of surprised this hasn't happened before now.

You may or may not have gentle honey bees, there are so many variables these days.

I'm not messing with them, but I was able to get a few feet away to see where they are coming from. They are pretty mellow, and seem happy, several were coming back loaded pretty heavy with pollen. I've lived in areas with "africanized" bees and they are usually much more aggressive.

I have a good report with most multi legged critters, it is the two legged ones that usually cause me trouble. If it wasn't part of my house I'd be fine with them staying.
 
I worked a year with 3,000 hives when I was younger----by having them in the wall will prohibit you from ever getting honey---if there are under 50 bees now there probably isn't even a queen yet---maybe they just found where an old colony was at one time---just wait till most leave and then duct tape over the slot--then watch to see if they have another entrance--if so you may need to remove the siding so a bee keeper can entice them in into a hive and set it away from the house----one hive in a good summer can produce up to 300 lbs of tasty honey---especially around fruit trees ---DaveHADDAM KANSAS (5).jpg
 
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If you're in Southern California call a pro in as they could be Africanized and not very friendly. You would need to carefully open the wall and move the queen into the new hive box so that the workers follow her. Look around for a local bee club because they usually keep a list of members that will extract colonies or catch swarms.
 
I'm in Northern California, and we haven't really had issues with the Africanized bees this far north.

I talked with a local bee keeper this morning, he will be coming out to have a look this afternoon. The number of bees coming and going has probably doubled just since yesterday, so I'm guessing they have only been here a few days and not heavily invested yet.

For those curious I'm attaching a couple of photos. I had to cut away some plants to get a good picture for the bee guy. The bees seemed unconcerned about my presence. A couple of curious guards buzzed me, but went back to their business when I backed off.

Outside wall of porch

Bees1.jpg

Inside wall of porch. Slot goes all the way through, but no bees hanging out here.
Bees2.jpg

Close up showing the slot they are coming and going from. I think the wall is just open inside this slot which makes for a nice bee home. Once this is all done I will be adding some screen here to discourage future home seekers.
Bees3.jpg
 
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