Yesterdays Job

[RatSnatcher 0]

This wasn’t my usual day by any means, my task today was to firstly try to remove a very large colony of bees, now when you consider the average hive has around 60,000 bees then you get the idea of the job in hand, add the fact that this was a chimney on a very large country dwelling then add that it was bloody high then you’re getting the drift of my afternoon.

 

As soon as I got my first looksy down the top I knew I was in for a job and a half. This colony was massive and had built enough combs to fill the complete void,

I didn’t want to kill them I have a nice langstroth waiting for these little cherubs so I set about trying to knock the comb down the chimney bit by bit then collect the bees after, the room was sealed and I was ready to go,

 

I managed to hoover quite a lot up, so I knew whatever the outcome I would save some of them

 

Firstly I cut pieces of comb away from the sides and worked it down the internals of the chimney.

This was not going to plan as somewhere the comb was getting stuck and wouldn’t work its way to the bottom, now imagine a very sticky mass about the size of a couple of bags of ballast and equally as heavy as anyone will tell you who keeps bees one frame can weigh around 5 kilos ,

but what we have here is much bigger and in one lump.

 

Time was ticking away on the cherry picker hire so the next plan was a very heavy roll of lead tied to a rope, up we go .......this weight was fugging heavy and 1000s of bees a mere 3ft away I was beginning to wonder why I was up there....oh yes save the bees ffs!!

 

A couple of drops no joy not even with this lump on the end could I shift this mass of sticky comb , it was just not going to happen, I had to admit defeat and resigned myself to the dismal decision that they would have to go, .....absolutely bloody gutted no other way to say how I felt.

 

 

Out came the coopex and up I went again, dropped a couple of sparklers down and waited for the shit to hit the fan.

 

Down again as time was running out for the crane, back up with the DR5, a quick blast and by now I was getting pretty knackered, as I had already done ¾ of a day proofing with sheets of 8x 4 1 inch mesh and fixings of a ladder, enough was enough excitement for now and my suit had more pricks in it than Annabel Chong,

 

I would have to attack them from the below now

More coopex I’m afraid.

 

Well it wasn’t to bee lol,

 

satisfied I had done all I could to save these beauties, this certainly would have been enough bees to top up a couple of my other hives and fill a whole one for over wintering, never mind. Surprised I didn’t get a sting but gutted all the same.

 

I set of to my little apiary and introduced the bees I had saved into one of my hives to top it up for overwintering, so all was not lost.

 

Here’s a video......

 

 

[neil cooney 10,416]

Fascinating, was the chimney out of use for some while or could a colony that size be built up over the Summer?

Another question, is it true Beekeepers don't suffer aches and pains ?

[RatSnatcher 0]

Hi neil, the chimney was out of use for some time, its hard to tell how deep the comb was,because it filled the complete void, but I have a shot of the veiw looking in the pot, I will try to add this tonight so you can see the size of the mass.

 

I had boarded up the fireplace and was hoping to knock the comb to the bottom, then hoover the bees up and re home the lot, and harvest the honey

 

The sheer height of this job was a little to much for me, I tried to not look down add the bees swarming around me that seem to just be all over the platform when I was working and the noise was something else, I got to admit I was completely shattered and devastated to have to exterminate them.

 

You can start with whats called a five frame necleus of bees typically around 10 to 15,000 bees and if you do your job right you can expand that to 20 full frames in a season 60,000 to ,000, worker bees only live for around 6wks through summer so its an ongoing process of queen laying.

Edited August 20, 2009 by RatSnatcher

[andybrock 2]

Hi neil, the chimney was out of use for some time, its hard to tell how deep the comb was,because it filled the complete void, but I have a shot of the veiw looking in the pot, I will try to add this tonight so you can see the size of the mass.

 

I had boarded up the fireplace and was hoping to knock the comb to the bottom, then hoover the bees up and re home the lot, and harvest the honey

 

The sheer height of this job was a little to much for me, I tried to not look down add the bees swarming around me that seem to just be all over the platform when I was working and the noise was something else, I got to admit I was completely shattered and devastated to have to exterminate them.

 

You can start with whats called a five frame necleus of bees typically around 10 to 15,000 bees and if you do your job right you can expand that to 20 full frames in a season 60,000 to ,000, worker bees only live for around 6wks through summer so its an ongoing process of queen laying.

 

RatSnatcher,

 

Very interesting day! at least you tried our best to save the bees, if you had this same job tomorrow would you tackle it any differntley? fortunaty I've never been asked to remove bees but I keep a couple of bee keepers numbers in my phone just in case!

 

Andy

[nod 285]

The thing is with beekeepers they will only come out if they can see the bees and get them in a box quickly any where else they dont want to know, thats all i get from my local keeper. by all means they will take them off u if u have spent all day getting them out from there home but personally i would put them in a plastic barrel with holes in and put them in a field

[RatSnatcher 0]

Hi neil, the chimney was out of use for some time, its hard to tell how deep the comb was,because it filled the complete void, but I have a shot of the veiw looking in the pot, I will try to add this tonight so you can see the size of the mass.

 

I had boarded up the fireplace and was hoping to knock the comb to the bottom, then hoover the bees up and re home the lot, and harvest the honey

 

The sheer height of this job was a little to much for me, I tried to not look down add the bees swarming around me that seem to just be all over the platform when I was working and the noise was something else, I got to admit I was completely shattered and devastated to have to exterminate them.

 

You can start with whats called a five frame necleus of bees typically around 10 to 15,000 bees and if you do your job right you can expand that to 20 full frames in a season 60,000 to ,000, worker bees only live for around 6wks through summer so its an ongoing process of queen laying.

 

RatSnatcher,

 

Very interesting day! at least you tried our best to save the bees, if you had this same job tomorrow would you tackle it any differntley? fortunaty I've never been asked to remove bees but I keep a couple of bee keepers numbers in my phone just in case!

 

Andy

 

 

Yes Andy, there would of been a few things I would of been able to do if I was better prepared for what happened and most importantly TIME on the lorry/cherry picker.

 

Firstly I would of cut the comb and sucked it out from above with the hoover on a higher setting bit by bit, then I would of wound wire round the pieces of comb that I cut and sucked out of the top, to hold it together and tied it to the pots, then I would of waited for the bees to gather on the comb and collected them then, but when you’re not paying the bill for the hire of the crane it was not in my hands again.

 

The other thing with hindsight was I would of used either drain rods or proper chimney sweep poles to push the comb down to the fireplace, I had to edit the vid to get it down to 10mins on youtube, so some of the video of my attempts were cut out of the video here, I did attempt to push it down with a 20ft swimming pool cleaning pole, but it was stuck fast about 30ft from the bottom.

 

I have a hoover that I have adapted to make a very low suction, your average house hold vacuum cleaner will kill the bees as you vacuum them up, and it quickly suffocates them as well as damage them as they travel down the pipe and hit the internals.

 

I will try to show a small clip of the inside looking down the pots

[andybrock 2]

Hi neil, the chimney was out of use for some time, its hard to tell how deep the comb was,because it filled the complete void, but I have a shot of the veiw looking in the pot, I will try to add this tonight so you can see the size of the mass.

 

I had boarded up the fireplace and was hoping to knock the comb to the bottom, then hoover the bees up and re home the lot, and harvest the honey

 

The sheer height of this job was a little to much for me, I tried to not look down add the bees swarming around me that seem to just be all over the platform when I was working and the noise was something else, I got to admit I was completely shattered and devastated to have to exterminate them.

 

You can start with whats called a five frame necleus of bees typically around 10 to 15,000 bees and if you do your job right you can expand that to 20 full frames in a season 60,000 to ,000, worker bees only live for around 6wks through summer so its an ongoing process of queen laying.

 

RatSnatcher,

 

Very interesting day! at least you tried our best to save the bees, if you had this same job tomorrow would you tackle it any differntley? fortunaty I've never been asked to remove bees but I keep a couple of bee keepers numbers in my phone just in case!

 

Andy

 

 

Yes Andy, there would of been a few things I would of been able to do if I was better prepared for what happened and most importantly TIME on the lorry/cherry picker.

 

Firstly I would of cut the comb and sucked it out from above with the hoover on a higher setting bit by bit, then I would of wound wire round the pieces of comb that I cut and sucked out of the top, to hold it together and tied it to the pots, then I would of waited for the bees to gather on the comb and collected them then, but when you’re not paying the bill for the hire of the crane it was not in my hands again.

 

The other thing with hindsight was I would of used either drain rods or proper chimney sweep poles to push the comb down to the fireplace, I had to edit the vid to get it down to 10mins on youtube, so some of the video of my attempts were cut out of the video here, I did attempt to push it down with a 20ft swimming pool cleaning pole, but it was stuck fast about 30ft from the bottom.

 

I have a hoover that I have adapted to make a very low suction, your average house hold vacuum cleaner will kill the bees as you vacuum them up, and it quickly suffocates them as well as damage them as they travel down the pipe and hit the internals.

 

I will try to show a small clip of the inside looking down the pots

 

I'll keep an eye open for that, this is one of the most interestig threads I've read on here in a while

 

 

Andy

[claybusers al 9]

very interesting i have seen it done before but from a open tree and the beekeeper made it look easy not a job i would of volunteered for i hope you got well paid

[RatSnatcher 0]

Here is the veiw looking down the chimney, a bit more to deal with than a swarm

 

[TOMO 26,196]

i have to say i like bees , so fair play to ya trying to save them like the other pestys on here i have told beekeepers of swarms i have been to.

 

but im amazed the home owner wanted to go to the expence of hiring you and the cheery picker for the day.

[RatSnatcher 0]

Tomo, I only had from 4pm to 6pm for the cherry picker, I feel that 2 more hrs I may of been able to save them and taken a different approach , but until I had my first look down the pots, I presumed that it was a fresh swarm.

 

The guy who supplied the cherry picker, his wife was in hospital and had to make a visit that evening, the property owner had a nice weekend Ferrari in the garage and was a very sound bloke

 

I have blagged a passenger seat burn up the motorway soon