logo Sign In

Honey Bee cut-out this past weekend.

Author
Time

In my own house, no less. Last November a swarm had taken up residence in the eave above our dining room window, next to the back door. They survived the winter and came on like gang busters.  These bees, by the way, are unrelated to my hive across the yard. 

I’ve been putting off cutting them out because they haven’t been a bother and I really haven’t felt like tearing my own house apart.  Normally that's the kind of thing we do for people who contact us asking for help. Anyway, I decided to cut them out Saturday with the help of three fellow beekeeper friends. I chose this weekend because I want them to have time to get established in a new hive before winter gets here. 


Here are the bees after I cut away the first part of the soffit.  It took me 30 minutes with a drill (pilot holes), a skill saw, and a crowbar just to get to this point – but if you look closely, you’ll notice there isn’t a single bee in the air.  Without a doubt,  the calmest colony I’ve ever seen.





This is after the cut-out and comb removal.  I had to tear out more structure (rafters and fascia) to get at all their comb, which I put into a proper hive using special frames made just for cut-outs and removals.  As was expected, they got much more aggressive after I started to remove babies and food.  That said, they were still fairly calm.  Never more than maybe 300 in the air, the rest staying with the comb as I placed it onto the new hive. I've done cut-outs before where there two or three times that many in the air.





This is the colony in their new home on Sunday.  I put it about three feet from where they had been, on the roof, just above the torn out eave.  Activity appears to be normal.  I’ll build back the rafters, eaves, soffit, and fascia in a week or two.  Some stragglers are still hanging around cleaning the last bits of honey from where the comb had been attached inside.  That’s normal. 

Six hours start to finish on Saturday and another two hours on Sunday gathering bunches of stragglers and putting them into the new hive.  I sprayed them with sugar water and brushed them into a small box for the climb up the ladder.   Final tally: 24 stings – a personal best.  ;-)

Forum Moderator
Author
Time

yipes!!  I'd call professionals to deal with something like that.   I'm surprised you didn't get bit more than 24 times.   I'm surprised they didn't sting to you to death.

Author
Time

True story: I've never been stung by a bee...ever.  And as such, I'm deathly afraid of bees.  That which we haven't experienced only makes us more cowardly.

 

I nearly fainted reading the OP.

Author
Time

Warbler said:

yipes!!  I'd call professionals to deal with something like that.   I'm surprised you didn't get bit more than 24 times.   I'm surprised they didn't sting to you to death.

Warb, I'm a beekeeper. The only reason I'm not a professional is because I don't charge to do cut-outs or removals.   

They didn't sting me to death because that's next to impossible. Plus I had on gear.  The stings were from when I had to take my gloves off for a moment or took too long to suit up after I went outside.  They weren't out there waiting to attack, in the shape of a big arrow - like a Warner Bros cartoon.

Also, city bees aren't generally as aggressive as bees out in a forest.  They're more used to people and activity.  These bees have been about five feet from my back door for almost a year.  I walked within a foot or two of them several times a day, refilled the water bowl I had for them to drink out of every day, scooped them out if they got stuck in it (they drink from the edges of it), that sort of thing.  They weren't aggressive at all.

Forum Moderator
Author
Time

I guess you like bees more than I.   If that had been my house, I would have called an exterminator.   Sorry if that offends.

Author
Time

TV's Frink said:

True story: I've never been stung by a bee...ever.  And as such, I'm deathly afraid of bees.  That which we haven't experienced only makes us more cowardly.

It's sort of a running anecdote with beekeepers that the anticipation of a sting is way worse than actual sting.  It feels about like getting an IV put in your arm.

The headachey part is that after you get stung, that pheromone stays at the site and other bees will try to sting in the same spot.  Bees that otherwise wouldn't have even been interested in bothering you.

That's why all my stings were ganged up in the same four areas.  In fact, when I went out Sunday to check on the colony and move some of the stragglers, they were very interested in the spot on my left glove where I'd been stung several times the day before.

Forum Moderator
Author
Time

Anchorhead said:

TV's Frink said:

True story: I've never been stung by a bee...ever.  And as such, I'm deathly afraid of bees.  That which we haven't experienced only makes us more cowardly.

It's sort of a running anecdote with beekeepers that the anticipation of a sting is way worse than actual sting.  It feels about like getting an IV put in your arm.

The headachey part is that after you get stung, that pheromone stays at the site and other bees will try to sting in the same spot.  Bees that otherwise wouldn't have even been interested in bothering you.

If that was intended to make me feel better, it backfired.  Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Author
Time

Anchorhead said:

 

Warb, I'm a beekeeper. The only reason I'm not a professional is because I don't charge to do cut-outs or removals.   

 That's awesome. I love bees. I'd totally raise my own if my wife wasn't DEATHY afraid of them.

I mean she leaves the house when a bee is stuck behind the window blinds and is dying.

Author
Time

TheBoost said:

Anchorhead said:

 

Warb, I'm a beekeeper. The only reason I'm not a professional is because I don't charge to do cut-outs or removals.   

 That's awesome. I love bees. I'd totally raise my own if my wife wasn't DEATHY afraid of them.

I mean she leaves the house when a bee is stuck behind the window blinds and is dying.

I thought our divorce was finalized last month.

Author
Time

What do you mean it's nearly impossible to get stung to death?  I mean, I'm not usually one to take every rumor for fact, but I was pretty sure I've read in what I thought were reputable sources that enough stings could kill you.

....

 

Now reading on the extremely reputable online Great Library called Wikipedia, and it seems to indicate that only those who are allergic would have sufficient reason to fear.  Is this true?

Author
Time

darth_ender said:

Now reading on the extremely reputable online Great Library called Wikipedia, and it seems to indicate that only those who are allergic would have sufficient reason to fear.  Is this true?

Based on my Frink-wife's dealing with irrational Bee fear, that is the case from her allergist (and I have a coworker who's allergic who carries a syringe of something magic in case she gets stung) 

Author
Time

darth_ender said:

What do you mean it's nearly impossible to get stung to death?  I mean, I'm not usually one to take every rumor for fact, but I was pretty sure I've read in what I thought were reputable sources that enough stings could kill you.

....

 

Now reading on the extremely reputable online Great Library called Wikipedia, and it seems to indicate that only those who are allergic would have sufficient reason to fear.  Is this true?

Yes, you'd need to be allergic for it to be a real issue.  Plenty of people are, so you might want to take that into consideration if you're ever near a swarm. 

That said, when you see a swarm or giant cluster on a tree branch or the side of a building, that's when the bees are usually the least aggressive.  they're in the process of finding a new home, have no babies, and no real food stores to protect, so they're largely uninterested in anything else.

Forum Moderator
Author
Time

TheBoost said:

Based on my Frink-wife's dealing with irrational Bee fear, that is the case from her allergist (and I have a coworker who's allergic who carries a syringe of something magic in case she gets stung) 

Epinephrine.

Forum Moderator
Author
Time

I love bees and my attitude to unnecessarily killing creatures is on record here but I have been stung by a bee.

I was taking photographs and I must have picked up a bee when I lent into a verge.

I then went up the escalator of John Lewis and felt something slightly tugging on my neck hair and gently brought my hand to adjust what I thought was a hair trapped in my collar.

When the sting went in the jolt of pain was like nothing I'd ever experienced in a life full of insect stings.

Sure you can factor shock into that but it was more like a hot needle than a wasp sting (something I have much more experience with).

The poor bee herself was rather larger than the usual British bumblebee so maybe she was a visitor to these shores.

The back of my neck was throbbing for ages too.

Bees in my experience go out of their way to avoid people and other animals, compared to horseflies, wasps and hornets they are very placid and I've picked them up in my hand to take them to places of safety when a cold snap has left them in a vulnerable position. I've had them land on my hand and walk around and fly off.

I'm sometimes nervous around bees but it's more for the safety of the insect than any fear of being stung by it.

Author
Time

TV's Frink said:

True story: I've never been stung by a bee...ever.  And as such, I'm deathly afraid of bees.  That which we haven't experienced only makes us more cowardly.

Damn city-slickers. I was stung three times this year already.

;-)

I love bees, always have. They are such amazing creatures. I get really mad when I see someone kill one. They are so magnificent. I think it's awesome Anchorhead is a beekeeper.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I hate bees, but they started it, what with their flying around and their buzzing and their stingers and their hey hey hey...

Author
Time

They only sting unless provoked.
And it doesn't hurt that bad anyway.

Author
Time

I know I'm probably going to heck for this,

but...

Author
Time

Anchorhead said:

 

 

But no, to be serious. I don't really have a big problem with bees. They're pretty cool. I let them wander around on me if they land there. Not too worried about being stung.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

Author
Time

TV's Frink said:

I hate bees, but they started it, what with their flying around and their buzzing and their stingers and their hey hey hey...

I suppose they can be a little intimidating.  You're generally ok if you see a lone forager.  When she's out collecting pollen, nectar, or water, she's not really in attack mode.  She has much more important things to do.

Now, as Ziggy says, if you provoke them by getting too close to the hive or swatting at them, the guard bees will let you know.  You'll usually get a warning bump or two.  If you don't back off, she'll make you back off.

Those guards are at the hive entrance, not out foraging.  They do make periodic flights around the hive, so they're usually withing 10 feet of it.  That's really the only time you're pushing your luck.  If you do happen to swat one and kill it, it's time to leave.  That releases a pheromone telling the others that danger is present.  Rest assured, on that second wave the girls won't be giving out any warnings.  ;-)

Forum Moderator
Author
Time

I don't really mind bees. They don't bother me and they're actually kind of cute.

Yellowjackets on the other hand ... God, I hate those bastards. My parents used to be orchard labourers, and since they didn't trust babysitters, me and my sister would have to spend almost all of our free time in amongst the apple trees. The wasps live in the damn trees, really, and it's hard to miss droves of wasps eating away at discarded apples on the ground during the summer. I used to go around with bare feet as a kid, even in the orchards, and I ended up stepping on the motherfuckers a few times, and got stung for it.

I still not free of the bastards, though. They like the area around my home, and I'm always seeing them flying through the air and finding their nests outside the house in every possible nook and cranny.

Author
Time

Tyrphanax said:

Anchorhead said:

 

But no, to bee serious.

 Fix0r'd?

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Sluggo said:

I know I'm probably going to heck for this,

but...

 It's Frink's and my lovechild!

We've named him after a long lost mutual friend.

TV's "Slugoo" Jones

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

Author
Time

He's a handsome chap.

 

 

And go Bees!!!