An exterminator knocked out a mature colony of honeybees in a wall of my house about a week ago. Took him two separate applications of a powder called Tempo 1% to kill the colony. They get it on their legs and wings and transfer it to the queens attendants. I know there has to be a lot of honey left in there. Now worried about the structural degradation the honey might cause.
A nice trove of beeswax and honey. Of course the proper thing to do is to recognize the sanctity and intrinsic rights of the bees and to reseal the wall.
That hive is impressive. It saddens me that the colony was destroyed as there are ways to safely remove them without causing harm to them or the humans who inhabit the home.
My neighbor had bees in her attic. She tried to poison them. didn't work. Finally she called a bee-keeper. If you can get the queen out, the worker-bees will follow. No poison necessary.
It's a win -win. Bees don't die, no poison and the bee-keeper gets more bees.
I agree, April. I'm such a passive beekeeper, when I noticed that one of our apiaries was reaching capacity, I had my husband build another one. I placed it 3 feet away from the brimming hive, scented the interior with lemon grass oil and waited 2 days. This morning, the brimming hive began to split, with the split relocating to the new apiary. I'm sure they have groomed a new queen to take over, if they haven't already.
@ Camie Vog - Cool! I know next to nothing about bee keeping. I learned a bit about proper bee removal from my elderly neighbor who just wanted them out of her house. The natural way was easiest and no nasty chemicals and dead bees.
If memory serves - there was a giant vacuum involved ???
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An exterminator knocked out a mature colony of honeybees in a wall of my house about a week ago. Took him two separate applications of a powder called Tempo 1% to kill the colony. They get it on their legs and wings and transfer it to the queens attendants. I know there has to be a lot of honey left in there. Now worried about the structural degradation the honey might cause.
A nice trove of beeswax and honey. Of course the proper thing to do is to recognize the sanctity and intrinsic rights of the bees and to reseal the wall.
That hive is impressive. It saddens me that the colony was destroyed as there are ways to safely remove them without causing harm to them or the humans who inhabit the home.
Yeah, I hate to see a docile colony like that destroyed. Bees like this are a very precious commodity.
My neighbor had bees in her attic. She tried to poison them. didn't work. Finally she called a bee-keeper. If you can get the queen out, the worker-bees will follow. No poison necessary.
It's a win -win. Bees don't die, no poison and the bee-keeper gets more bees.
I agree, April. I'm such a passive beekeeper, when I noticed that one of our apiaries was reaching capacity, I had my husband build another one. I placed it 3 feet away from the brimming hive, scented the interior with lemon grass oil and waited 2 days. This morning, the brimming hive began to split, with the split relocating to the new apiary. I'm sure they have groomed a new queen to take over, if they haven't already.
@ Camie Vog - Cool! I know next to nothing about bee keeping. I learned a bit about proper bee removal from my elderly neighbor who just wanted them out of her house. The natural way was easiest and no nasty chemicals and dead bees.
If memory serves - there was a giant vacuum involved ???
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