Bee Hive Retrieved from a Shed Floor

We have another bee hive happily making hteir home at little sprouts. This one was retrieved from a backyard shed in Grants Pass. The bees had taken up residence under the floor in the shed.

This time I tried something new. Instead of going at sundown, we arrived at mid day. It was HOT!  The advantage here is that many of hte bees were out foraging for pollen, so the hive was fairly small.  That did make it a bit easier to deal with. Since this was a hive, not a swarm, I built a temporary hive box. It is a square seal able plastic storage box from Walmart. I built 4 supports from old wood cut into 2x2s and laid them in the bottom. a light piece of wood across the top kept the spacing just enough to slide honeycomb down between the supports. Across the supports I wrapped some light wires. This in theory would allow me to place ehte comb upright between the supports, leaning against hte wires, and allow hte bees to crawl on them just like in the natural hive. IF I encountered enough comb it would be easy to slip it into the box with the queen, let he bees follow, and take them home without damaging the comb.

Well, that was the plan. Unfortunately I made one grave mistake. Wen we pulled the floor boards up (a 2x4 sheet of plywood) I wasn't prepared properly and had to stand the plywood against hte side of hte shed to get hte boxes in position. when I did that, the comb slowly but too quickly to save, leaned over and broke off the plywood, falling to the dirt floor. Sigh.  ?Not to self... NEVER lean comb... ever. Keep it straight up and down as the bees built it. If i had the box ready, i could have placed the board over the box, cut the comb off letting it fall into the box, and take hte bees home quick and easy But.. alas.. this was a several hour experience now.

Since hte comb and bees fell on the floor, it became a hide and seek with the queen. I started sweeping up as many bees as I could and placed them in the box. But.. alas.. every time i did so and left for 5 or 10 minutes to watch, they all left hte box again. The queen was not in the bunch yet.

After trying that three or so times, I came to the realization tha the queen was not in the mounds of bees that were accumulating on the shed and floorboards which I was sweeping up. she was hiding. Close inspection showed another group of bees slowly moving even further under the floor, along an old rotted floor support.  I removed a full 4x8 sheet of flooring and sure enough.. there they were. I did the best I could to sweep up the bees climbing on and under the rotted floorboard, but again each wait meant more bees leaving hte box than coming. Then I got a bit more aggressive and started tearing off hte rotted parts of hte wood. behind hte exterior of hte board was several holes full of bees. They were so deep  into that old 2x6 that my brush was not touching them. By pulling it apart and placing the pieces in the bucket I finally found success! the Queen was flushed out and I saw her crawling away from me. Carefully scooping her up and dropping her in I held my breath.  FINALLY this time the other bees started swarming into the box! I even moved hte box outside hte shed door and within 5 minutes most of hte bees were heading out to find the box. Then it was easy, just keep scraping them inside every so often, let them settle, scrape them in again, etc.

By now the foraging bees were returning and hte hive was growing. At least this part worked according to plan, the returning bees headed straight into the box, pollen and all.  That did make things a bit easier. We waited as long as we could to let as many as possible return, then sealed the box up and headed home.

This experience brought back memories of when I was a volunteer fireman in Texas... in a hot suit, inside a small building, hot summer day, sweat dripping down  like rain inside the bee suit, limited visibility, buzzing all around as the swarm protested, tearing floor panels out looking for the goal... yes it brought back many memories... and it was hot. I had to pause 3 or 4 times to get water and cool down. Even so the afternoon totally drained me. was it worth doing in the hea of hte day? probably not..

But hey.. we have another hive at our farm, happily adjusting to life in a Top Bar Hive.

UPDATE: unfortunately these bees didnt decide to stay. Within a few days the hive was completely empty. I supposed you cant control everything!