Capturing a Swarm Video

As an addition to the previous post, here is a link to a video of your Haywood Extension Agents capturing a honeybee swarm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaDwzfise5g

Enjoy!

Capturing a Swarm Video

Excluding Bees from a Home - Part II

Checked on the success of excluding honeybees from a chimney this morning, and on how they were responding to using a "bait" hive set up next to the original entrance...at the moment I can report that they seem to be making the transition quite well. There are still a few bees escaping from the one-way bee escape we made, with a good many individuals still gathering on the outside of the contraption. Most have begun using the bait hive. We'll be leaving this all in place for about a week before moving the hive to a permanent location.

Excluding Honey Bees from a Home

On occasion the Extension Center gets calls on a honeybee colony that has taken up residence in a home. Typically, the homeowner is glad to tolerate them as long as they are not getting out inside the house, and the entrance they are using outside is in an area that the homeowner doesn't frequently walk past. After a while, we get the call as to how to get rid of them.

At this point, unfortunately, it gets to be rather difficult. Not only do you have to get the bees out, you also need to remove all of the wax and honey from inside the wall or another swarm will simply move in, or if one doesn't, the remaining honey may ferment and escape the deteriorating honey comb and you end up with a sticky, smelly mess as it seeps through an interior wall or ceiling.

For more information call your local Extension Center or a local beekeeper.

Here are a few pictures of one experience of excluding bees from a chimney. In this case, the bees had been calling this site home for over a year before they began to come into the home itself. By using a screen funnel, the bees will work up and exit the hive. The screen allows the scent of the hive to continue to be from the entrance to the hive so the returning bees try to go in like they always have and they can't find their way back in through the small opening of the funnel. At the end of the day those bees that have been trapped out of the hive will form an artificial "swarm," with no queen, that can then be caught like a normal swarm. In this picture we have left a hive in place in hopes they will move in as it turns into night time.

Will it work? I'll have to let you know!

Catching Swarms

2009 Bee Swarm Catchers List

Each spring there are many strange things you see in the natural world, not the least of which are swarms of honeybees. If you have a swarm develop in your yard you can call one of the beekeepers listed below and they will come and capture the swarm and take them away.

Paul Heatherly 734-8961

Roy Duvall 648-3636 550-1461

Alan Blanton 400-1735

Carroll Bailey 456-8922