barnetmill

My storage shed which is used to store my hurricane supply plywood, sequestering garbage prior to hauling to the local county dump, my mower, and other supplies is now housing a bee colony. They are entering via 8x16 concrete blocks that serve as footer and appear to be under the floor. I do need bees about for obvious reasons, but for my own personal safety they can not remain there they are. I can try to drive them out with noxious fumes from diesel or gasoline or spray them with insecticide and kill the whole colony which I do not want to do.
Any suggestions?

videosilva

That is not something that you hear often " Huricane Supply ". Seems odd even.

harveyc

From a Google search, I came up with Florida Beekeepers and Honeybee Removal which lists:
Morgan The Bee Man
ESCAMBIA AND SANTA ROSA COUNTY FLORIDA
Specializing in Stinging Insects, Swarm Collecting, and Bee Removal
Phone: 712-5059 or 478-7690
Email: Mrflabee@cox.net

Give him a call or email him and ask if he can help or offer advice. Good luck with bees as well as hurricanes.

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barnetmill

No it is not odd at all.
Between 1996 and 2005 my house has been struck by three hurricanes with the eye passing over my house on two occasions. My house is very strong and only the windows need to be covered. In the United States power lines run over head on wooden power poles. Highwinds topple the trees and they fall bringing down the electrical power lines. So it takes time for the electric power to be restored. Stores can not do business due to lack of power and missing roofs. Most services become unavailable for a period of time. Other utilities can also cease. Everyone in my neighborhood has their own generator. Prior to the storm people buy quantities of gasoline to run the generators. Also food is purchased in large quantities and there is a run on plywood to cover windows. The county EOC (Emergency Operations Center) request that people keep some supplies.
So yes I have supplies on hand rather fighting for my place to buy supplies just before the disaster strikes.
Prudent people keep food, medicine/first aid, communication devices, and arms on hand for disasters.

MY local CERT (Citizens Emergency Response Team) will gather for an emergency exercise next week. June 1st is the official beginning of the hurricane season.

trebor

locate the rare fruit council in your area . do a google search "rare fruit council (your county) "
Then email them that you have bees some one can have OR ask them who is best to help you remove this hive so the bees are not destroyed .. Someone will help you
If your in a area where your close to 2 or three counties search all of them..
Someone wants them bees

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If ya can't eat it, it ain't growing in my back yard !

sunfish

barnetmill

To call beekeepers out entails some cost on my part and also some destruction to the shed for the beekeeper to get at the bees. I do not have the suits or smoke that keepers use.
I really want to repel them. They appear to be under the floor of the shed and are likely setting up between the floor joists. The underside of the floor is not readily accessible. I am thinking put a small hole in floor with a battery powered drill introducing either Avon skin-so-soft or moth balls to induce them to leave. This should allow them to take the honey with them and set up somewhere else. In the future I look into putting out baited swarm boxes to prevent such problems. I would like to have a hive in the future in a place of my choosing and not that of the bees.

bananimal

Back in Charlotte, NC I once found a nest of yellow jacket wasps living in the junction box for the back porch floodlights. Decided ---- “I can fix that!”

Put on a one piece jumpsuit over long sleeve shirt and jeans --- wore boots, gloves. Large brimmed yard hat covered with hunters hat netting. Wrapped masking tape around all openings – wrists, ankles. Sounds good, huh? So ---- armed with battery screwdriver, can of “Whack-a-Wasp” and a clear exit off the deck I unscrewed the box plate. Had removed the light fixture the previous evening when they were mostly sleeping – that’s how I found out.

The buzzing first started when I touched the first screw. By the time I pulled the plate the sound was so loud I got worried. Just how big was this nest? Every space I could see in that hole in the wall was packed with buzzing, screaming, swarming p__d off yellow jackets. I was covered with wasps from the chest up. Shot a 5 second stream of W-a-W into the box. The buzzing got so loud I dropped everything and took off for the hills – literally. Half acre away, on a hill, I stood in my garden and watched the show. They poured out of the J-box hole like water from a fire hose. Half hour later went to check things out and the deck was covered with dead or half dead YJ’s. Only got stung once in the throat where the hat net was tucked into my shirt.

Talked to a local exterminator later and he said the whole wall space bounded by 2 studs was probably filled up with wasps.

So go ahead and toss in those mothballs – have some fun. And get ready to run! Fast!

Dalmatiansoap

Reminds me on
Just an ordinary Sunday afternoon
that thing realy scared me

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Darkman

I have a number for a bee guy. I don't know if they charge or not. If I had my hive ready I'd take them. I'll give you a call. I don't think you can remove them without lifting some of your floor though. Can you see under the floor?

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Darkman in Pensacola

AS ALWAYS IMHO AND YOUR MILEAGE MAY DIFFER!!!!!!!!

Life - Some assembly required, As is no warranty, Batteries not included, Instructions shipped separately and are frequently wrong!

Kentucky Bourbon - It may not solve the problem but it helps to make it tolerable!

Statistics - Data that analyst twist to support the insane opinions of those that pay them.

ron_mcb

they sound like yellow-jackets/wasps and not honey bees to me... the wasps are mostly predatory animals and dont behave like honey bees. yellow jackets and other wasps normally set up in either man made structures and or in the ground.. this is what i notice in my area. honey bees can nest in houses but i have rarely seen it. i normally see them build nests up high and away from structures. im sure they may behave a little different in different areas in order to survive.

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barnetmill

I have not actually captured one or gotten close enough about 3 ft to a stationary insect to peer at them closely. Due to the time of year and their numbers they are most likely honey bees. Also their behavior. These insects are constantly returning to their hive. I had a bee keeper at one time that was keeping some hives on my place so that I have some knowledge of their behavior. The local ground hornets tend to do return in large numbers in the evening. The use of the lower part of the structure is new to me for bees, but it is still possible. A good series of rains and on their own they may leave. I have killed several ground hornet nests in the past when they were in the wrong place with a small amount of gasoline poured down an entrance. I use a 10 ft pvc pipe to introduce the gasoline. Normally I leave wasp and hornet nests alone if they they pose no danger as I would these bees if they were somewhere else. I was about to clear some brush near the shed when I noticed them and backed off. At first I was worried that they were africanized, but they now put out fewer sentinels and are acting like normal bees. I assume they are getting use to their new lodgings.

jjjankovsky

My brother and I used to keep bees and were on the 'swarm list'...and we'd show up in our white suits and rescue the bees from the citizens that were contimplating their demise. We also went to situations similar the this, the colony inside a wall, chimmney, etc...

We were interested in getting the bees out and not leaving 60 pounds of honey behind that might break through a wall after the bees were gone and could not keep the honey cool...or, attract other critters.

Call your County Extension Agent, if you have one (agricultural advisor) and ask for the local bee club. I'm sure they'll respond, but if they are not honeybees, just burn your shed and they'll be gone!

Worm_Farmer

I would suggest you borrow, or build a swap box. The bees will start to move into the swarm box. Then you can just close the box and move them away. It will not be an over night process but will help your problem. Or find someone with a box hive and put it next to where they are, and wait for them to move into the hive.

jjjankovsky

To make that work, one needs to put a cone of fine wire over the exit of the existing colony about 18" deep with the small end away...the bees go out, but can't very well find the very small opening in order to return...

the swarm box needs a new queen, and iff you do all of this...and, they are honeybees...about 3 weeks later you will have most of the bees in your swarm box...maybe.

We used to perform this very slow transfer, but I still think you'd better identify the bug in question first. If they are yello jackets or other wasps, blast 'em!

RandyGHO

South Fl has had incidents of Africanized bees seems like I read a couple of years ago. Be careful. Calling your extension agent is a good idea. If they are Africanized bees the state might take over and do them in.

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Thinking outside the peel always.

barnetmill

They have very few sentinels and I have approached them inadvertently with a 335 husky week eater equipped with a 10" saw blade and that is how I discovered them. I was about to use a 10" saw blade to cut down the brush next to the shed and stopped upon discovering them. Highly aggressive bees would have most likely attacked me.

RobG7aChattTN

There should be a local bee keep who'd be happy to take them off your hands for free. This is the best time of year to capture a swarm (spring) when they have all summer to build up their honey supplies and have swarmed because they are half of a healthy colony and not because they were a sick colony (late summer of fall). They are worth money to the bee keeper and all you need is the queen and a few other workers and the rest of the colony that is left will disappear with the queen gone.

kgbenson

It is very, very difficult to repel bees off of comb if there is brood. This time of year, and in your area any time of the year there will be comb with brood.

There are repellents that beekeepers use to have bees vacate honey supers at the time of harvest. These are quite powerful, and work very very well, but will do nearly nothing to move bees off of comb with brood. It will agitate them and make them defensive. Gasoline, diesel, insecticides will really aggravate them.

Bear in mind that repellents also wear off. The presence of old comb and bee odors however persist and are very attractive to future swarms. (in fact one way to get more bees is set out some old equipment that had previously housed bees!) In other words, unless you get rid of them entirely, and remove the comb and seal the thing up, you are fairly likely to have more bees in the future.

Not least of all is that you will be leaving pollen and honey and bee larvae in the void. All of these, when not protected by the bees are very interesting to other critters. Honeycomb is also very thin wax, and if the colony is no there to modulate the temps, can melt, then there will be a gawdawful mess that is far harder to mitigate.

Not the answer you are looking for, but the best one in 99% of circumstances.

Keith

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kgbenson

Swarms perhaps, extracting a colony from a building - no.

IF they are in a cavity for any length of time, they are no longer a swarm and the effort goes up exponentially. This is not a swarm that is sitting on a branch 6 feet off the ground. Most extractions from buildings are hard work when done correctly.

THey are worth less than most people think. Most bee keepers collect swarms not because they want free bees, but to keep people from being afraid of them and killing them. New swarms need to be cared for and fed. They are a decent resource, early in the year (a swarm in may is worth a load of hay, a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon, a swarm in July isn't worth a fly), but in the end, at best, they replace a 60-70 dollar package of bees and cost at least as much to feed and get up and running for the next year. (not including the cost of the new queen one would want)

Having said that - removing a colony and dealing with all of the comb and honey and stuff is a money loser unless you charge more than almost anyone will pay. Most of the guys I know try to break even, and hardly count their time in the equation. Generally they do it because they want people to think favorably about bees and because the just like working the bees. IT;s a challenge.

Think of it this way. How much would a carpenter or plumber charge to open a wall, mess around for several hours in the heat with protective gear?

I catch swarms, I do it because people are afraid, I like to help, and I like to catch swarms. If I did it for a living I would have to charge $250 for even the simplest calls just to cover my time, bee feed, equipment to house the bees, travel time etc.

Keith

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