Here's my family throwing me a 48th birthday party at a local steak house. We had a great time. My wife and I are the ones next to our newest baby in the seat, little Christian. At one time or another, I've talked everyone in the picture into helping me out with the bee business :)

Now for today's lesson...

We all like to save a buck and many people want to get started keeping bees by luring a hive out of a wall of their home, barn, garage or from a tree. It is a frequently asked question, "Can I lure the bees out of the wall by placing an empty hive next to the wall?" It is a good question.

Last November I received a call from a couple who noticed bees flying around the bushes in front of their home. They thought they had a swarm. This was November 13, when there are NO SWARMS. I expected to find a handful of yellow jackets that must have survived the killer frosts. Upon inspection, sure enough, I noticed honey bees flying in and out of the north wall of their home, going in just below the siding. The owners really wanted me to place an empty hive next to the house to see if the bees would leave the wall and take up residence in the hive I placed next to the wall. I tried to convince them, that it would never happen, but I obliged them. That was in November and so you'll have to stay tuned to these lessons because in the spring, I'll go back and give you an update. However, I can pretty much guess now that the bees did not leave their nice warm hive inside the wall. Here is a video of the empty hive I placed next to their wall.




Does this work? Well, I've learned to never say never, but I am really tempted here to say never, but as soon as I do, someone will do it! So let me explain why it is nearly impossible and why it would rarely happen.
An established hive in a wall of a structure has a combination of brood in various stages, stored pollen, nectar and stored honey. They have worked very hard to build drawn comb. The queen's pheromone is prominent in the hive. Why would they leave? There is too much to take care of. They are busy feeding young baby bees and storing honey. They would never abandon their hive short of some disease such as CCD, and then you would not want the bees anyway. Remember, that a colony of bees is actually scientifically considered a single organism. 60,000 bees acting as one single organism. They are dependent upon each other, working together to make their hive function. This is why it is nearly impossible to lure it out of a safe home.

Don't be fooled. If you place an empty hive next to the wall where the bees live, you might see lots of bees going into your empty hive. But more than likely they are merely searching it for resources such as any beeswax on frames, or honey.
The only way, as far as I am concerned, to remove a hive from a structure is to remove every last bit of comb and remove the queen as well. If you leave the queen, but take a considerable number of bees, the hive has not bee removed and will rebuild.

Some try to place a funnel made of screen over the entrance hole on the house with the large end of the screen funnel against the house and the smaller end toward the open sky. The theory is that the bees can get out, but they will not try to enter back into the small opening on the screen funnel. This is not effect as the queen WILL NEVER come out and the hive could die within the wall because the foragers cannot bring back food. You, or people who call you to remove a hive, do not want a bee hive to die in a wall. I'll tell you why in just a moment.

Also, for those who choose to spray poison in the hole in the house, let me warn you that this is not effective. First, it is very difficult to saturate the hive enough to kill it entirely due to the way the comb is large and layered. Secondly, if you were to kill it, then you will have a larger problem. Now you have unprotected honey which, without bees to tend to it, will run, ooze, and drip attracting such other pests as roaches, mice and even black mold. This can happen too, if you lure out the bees through a screen funnel but the queen is left inside with the young bees. It is critical to have a beekeeper remove the hive entirely from the home. Take a look at this hive I removed. It was huge and took a full day to remove. You can click on the image to download the full size image.



You'll receive calls from friend and neighbors asking you to remove hives from various kinds of structures and if you notice in the image above, you see very few bees. That's because we manufacture a specially made bee-vac that vacuums the bees safely into a cage. Otherwise, there would be thousands upon thousands of bees flying around protecting and defending the brood and honey in the picture. The brood is toward the center of the pictures, toward the lower left. It is a bit lighter in color, a leather brown color. Sealed honey can be noticed at the top of the picture. If you'd like to inquire about one of our bee-vacs click here
Why would you leave your house and move into an empty garage? Bees will not either!
WHAT ABOUT SWARM LURES
Swarm lures are different in that when using a swarm lure, you are not trying to lure a hive out of a dwelling, but you are trying to invite a swarm into you hive or trap. In other words, a swarm is a natural split from a larger hive. They leave with a queen and send scouts out to find a nice new home. This is how bee colonies multiply, kind of like having children. The scouts can be attracted to your hive or swarm lure because of the scent. For that matter the whole hive can be drawn to your swarm lure. The scouts can go back then, and inform the swarm that they have found a home and lead them to your box. Now a couple of things have to happen for this to be successful.

1) An existing hive has to produce a swarm very close to where you live and this usually only occurs in May-June.
2) Scouts bees have to happen on to your lure scent or hive. It's a big world out there and such a small bee to find your box.

Last summer I had hundreds of bee boxes with drawn comb stored in a friend's barn. One day, I received a call that thousands of bees were in his barn. Great! I concluded that a swarm was moving into some of those boxes. But, he was right and I was wrong. There were thousands of bees, but it was not a swarm. They were just smelling out some dried honey smells and looking around. But imagine thousands of bees knowing how great of a home those boxes with drawn comb would have made. You would have thought that if any hives in the area were to swarm, this is where they would go. They never did.

HOW TO REMOVE A HIVE FROM A STRUCTURE

How do you remove a hive from a structure? Saws, hammers, pry bars, ladders, lights, extension cords, drills and all the other tools you need to build a house :) It is pretty intensive. I actually have a long check list of tools and supplies I need to do the job, and I load the truck the day before.

You have to decide where the hive is located by using a stethoscope. Then you have to decide, along with the home owner if you should enter the wall from the outside by removing siding or the inside by removing drywall. To me, it is much easier to remove dry wall, and less work to repair. But it just depends on the siding and backer board.

You should also sign a contract with the home owner specifying that you are NOT a bonded contractor and that you will not be responsible for damages. In a perfect world it is best for the home owner to have their favorite handy man there to open up the wall and close up too. But do have it in writing. By the way, most home owners pay between $200 - $1000 to have bees removed.

I only open enough of the structure to begin using my bee vac to vacuum the exposed bees. Then, I remove more of the structure and vacuum more bees. I continue this until I have all the bees removed. On a large hive this takes several hours. Once all the bees are removed, I begin to tear out the comb.

I then take the bee vac full of bees and dump them into an empty hive, queen and all, then I process all the honey from the hive and process the good wax. It can be a profitable venture in that the home owner may pay you $500, you can then sell the honey and bees wax for another $300 if the hive is large, and you obtained a free full size hive, worth at least $150. Do the math, not bad for a day's work. But it is work! I wear a full suit, duct tape every hole and wear boots and heavy gloves. You must, because unlike working your hives at home, you are tearing up and attacking a hive.

We've spent a long time perfecting our version of the bee-vac, adjusting the air suction so it does not injure the bees and adding padding in the right places so the bees are not knocked against walls when drawn into the cage. These bee vacs are great to use on swarms too, especially swarms that are too high to shake out of a tree or hanging on the side of a building. Here's what our bee vac looks like.



Every beekeeper who is interested in retrieving swarms or hives would benefit greatly in owning a bee-vac, and beekeeping associations could have one on hand to lend to its members!

Finally today, let me remind you of the check list for what you need now that spring is almost here.
[] Hives wooden ware
[] Plenty of honey supers, at least 3 per hive
[] Protective clothing such as hat/veil, suit
[] Smoker and hive tool
[] Place your 3 lb package bee order
[] Sugar water spray bottle
[] Pallets or blocks to place your hives on
[] Review all lessons so that you can hit the ground running!
We provide one year of free mentoring when you purchase your hives and bees from us. That means that you can call us and get advise on your problems or general beekeeping questions.
We are still providing packaged bees, 3 lb packages with Italian queen for pick up. Give us a call at the number below if you need bees for your hives.
If you still need to purchase items for your beekeeping needs, go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/
Until next time, remember to Bee-have yourself!
David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
217-427-2678 (Mon. - Fri. 9am - 5pm)
Email us at: david@honeybeesonline.com


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Hi, and welcome to another online beekeeping lesson from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Please feel free to submit your beekeeping questions and I will answer them in future lessons! Email me at: david@honeybeesonline.com

I thought I'd take a break from the bee lessons today and tell you about how we removed a honeybee hive from a diesel engine yesterday. But then I decided this would make a good lesson on swarms, although the hive in the engine was not a swarm, but an active hive with comb.

I received a call on Wednesday night from a man who noticed bees coming and going out of a small hole in the oil pan of one of his Cummins Diesel engines.

Wanting to sell the engine for scrap metal, he needed the bees removed first. For most bee removals I am assisted by my father-in-law, Bill Henness of Paris, Illinois. Bill makes our bee-vac that we sell and works in our hive production as well. Our bee-vacs are wonderful. It sucks the bees into a screen cage and the air suction can be adjusted so that it does not injure the bee. Then the cage can be pulled out of the vac so that the bees can be transported safely to their new location.

At 8:00 a.m., Bill and I met the man and his father, the owner of the engine and the unwanted bees. He used a sledge hammer to break open the aluminum oil pan, and sure enough, there the bees were, on a cold November morning, clustered together over their comb.

We take a lot of calls like this, almost one per day in the spring and early summer when swarms are more common. You will too, when people learn that you are a beekeeper. Since it was around 40 degrees, the bees were very calm and on the comb. I started sucking them into the cage, peeling back the comb and revealing more bees along the way. Finally after about an hour, I had removed all the comb and captured all the bees. And as part of the course, we spend the next half hour answering honeybee questions.

This was the wrong time to remove a hive. There was only about 2 lbs of bees and they had very little honey in their comb. But the engine had to go for scrap the next day. It is normally best to remove a hive in the Spring, so they can have time to build up their new home with comb and gather enough nectar throughout the year to carry them through winter. This hive could never get ready for winter now. So, I combined them with another hive.



On site, back at the engine, I tested the hive for American Foul Brood, sacbrood and chalk brood and saw no signs. I inspected many bees for mites and found none. No deformed wings, so that's why I decided to add them to one of my other hives.

When combining bees like this, it is best to place a piece of newspaper between the two different sets of bees. Otherwise, they will fight each other because the main hive will view the new bees as robbers. But by placing a newspaper barrier between the bees with a few holes in it, the bees will eat through the paper and by time they meet, they will live happily ever after (or at least for 30 days, the normal lifespan of a worker bee).


Swarms are easier to capture than removing an existing hive. Swarms usually have no comb, and are just a huge pile of bees hanging from a tree, car bumper, fence post, bird house or as in this picture, a porch on a beautiful house. A swarm is the natural way hives multiply. This happens predominately in late April, May and throughout the month of June.

In our bee yards it's RED ALERT during the months of May and June. We try to capture our own swarms. Swarms are not aggressive; they usually don't sting because they are full of honey for their journey and they have no honey or brood in a comb to protect. They are simply out shopping for a new house.

When I experimented with Russian queens, I found that they have a greater propensity to swarm. In fact, I had one hive swarm several times in two days. Sound impossible? A swarm is when the old queen leaves with half the hive. However, after the main swarm, there can be "afterswarms." This is when virgin queens swarm with smaller amounts of bees from the hive.

You might be wondering why a swarm would hang from a tree, and just sit there doing nothing. The main reason is that the scouts are out, looking for a nice place to make their final home. That's the beekeeper's tricky job, to capture the swarm before the scouts return and to make sure the scouts cannot find the newly captured hive.

It is common for a beekeeper to capture a swarm by shaking the swarm into a hive, and then leave the hive below the tree until dark. The problem is, the scouts can find their hive, enter it, convince the swarm there is a better place, and soon they will leave the hive. So, capture and move it once they are all in.

In this picture, notice the swarm hanging just above the deep hive body sitting on a bottom board? Now, all I do is give the branch a hard shake and all the bees and queen drop in the box. If they don't? Just do it again, only harder!

Keeping a swarm in their new hive box is tricky too. Here's what I do. I save drawn comb just for the capture. Drawn comb is another best friend of a beekeeper. Swarms will stay better if there is drawn comb, and a lot better if you can add a frame of brood from another hive. I spray the foundation with sugar water too. What bee would leave a sugar coated comb? I also restrict the opening down to only a small, small opening where only one or two bees can get through at a time. It's hard to swarm again if everyone has to go single file through the door. Keep it this way for at least 24 hours. My son will keep his captured swarm hives completely closed the rest of the day, and through the night.

Some tips on capturing a swarm:

1) When you get a call, ask good questions. Ask how large the swarm is, by having the caller compare it to a soft ball size, foot ball size, bowling ball size or beach ball size. This will help you know what to take. Also, ask how high the swarm is off the ground.
2) Have equipment ready like a fireman. You'll need a spare hive! Please don't call us and ask us to send you a hive in 2 hours! Have an extra one on hand. It's an extra expense, but you save by not having to buy bees! You'll also need sugar water to spray the new frames. Have the sugar water already mixed and in a spray bottle. You'll also need ropes to possibly tie off limbs, a nice limb saw, gloves because some tree sap is sticky when you cut the limbs and a secure way to tie down the hive box you are transporting home. You don't want the hive bouncing apart in the back of your truck, only to find all the bees are gone when you get home with your captured swarm. I keep my swarm supplies in a big army ammo container so that I can grab it and run. I also keep my ladder in my truck from late April through May. It takes too long to load it and strap it down.
3) Warn Bystanders. The home owner or bystanders will gather to watch. Although swarms are not aggressive and usually do not sting, they are bees with stingers. I always warn bystanders to back away or watch from their car or bedroom window. Your work will most certainly draw a crowd.
4) Be Careful. Don't try to climb the highest tree or put yourself in danger. Some swarms are way up in the tops of trees. The most dangerous aspect of swarm capture is the climb! Be careful!
5) Work fast, but not hurried. The bees are waiting for scouts to take them to a better home. Or the queen may have become too tired on their way to the better home and they may just be taking a break, a quick break!
6) Retrieval. Shake, cut or vac? You'll have to make important decisions once you see how the swarm is positioned. You'll have to decide whether to climb into the tree, or use a ladder or you may be fortunate enough to simply have the swarm at waist level. Then, you'll have to decide if you can shake the branch or cut it. If the swarm will fall directly into the box without having to fall through other branches, then by all means shake! If not, and they are on a small branch, cut the branch and carry it down to the box. This is really dangerous and takes a lot of balance and strength. Some swarms can be very heavy. This is where your ropes come in handy. Before cutting someone else's tree, ask permission. Explain the size of the branch so they will not be surprised when their beautifully shaped tree now looks like the cookie monster took a bite out of it.


When swarms are on buildings, cars and permanent structures, you have to use a bee-vac. You will never scrape them all off or get the queen. I've tried! It's like pushing a chain uphill. But, with a bee-vac, you simply vacuum them safely into a cage. A bee-vac is the second most important tool to the beekeeper, second to the hive tool, in my opinion.
7) Place the captured swarm box in its new location ASAP. Though you must allow adequate time for the swarm to work its way into the box, you must move it to its new location as soon as possible. There is a good chance that the swarm has a plan, a planned place to go. You've got your work cut out to disrupt that and convince them to go where you want them to go and to stay.
8) The white sheet approach. Using a white sheet works! It seems to help the bees notice the dark entrance to the hive box you are using. I rarely use a white sheet. Once I removed a swarm from garden. I placed a hive box on the ground very close to the hive. They began walking in. It took around 30 minutes for the swarm to finally walk into the hive, and at the end of the 30 minutes, I observed the queen walking in.
How to prevent swarms in your own hives
Swarm prevention is vital for a good honey production year. Swarming is a natural instinctive behavior and is how a mature hive multiplies into two hives. Attempting to prevent a swarm is a challenge, and sometimes after doing everything to prevent a swarm, they still swarm. If a hive swarms and 50% of the hive leaves, then it will unlikely be able to produce a good honey crop that same year due to the reduction in bees. If you are fortunate enough to capture the swarm, the good news is that you now have two hives, but the bad news is, neither will provide a honey crop that year. You can usually place the swarm back into the hive it came from, and the swarming instinct will have been satisfied.


So, the best honey crop comes from operating a hive slightly below the swarm congested level, while preventing a swarm.
Congestion vs. Crowded --you need open cells!
Many beekeepers have been taught to provide more space in the hive to prevent swarms but this is only partially true. Placing a super of undrawn foundation on the hive will not help if you've waited too long. Hives swarm because of congestion and overcrowding and more so from congestion. Congestion means that there is incoming nectar and pollen in large quantities, and the queen is laying well, thus there are not enough empty cells to accommodate the need. This is why undrawn foundation (more space) does not always help. They need drawn comb with open cells, not just more space. Sometimes, you can pull out a frame or two of brood from the brood nest area and add two frames of either drawn or undrawn foundation, and this might be a temporary solution. But by this time, you may have waited too long.
Remove swarm queen cells. The obvious swarm sign is the presence of queen swarm cells. These queen cells are called swarm cells because the are usually located on the lower section of a frame in the brood chamber. You can tilt back a deep hive body and look for these swarm queen cells hanging from the bottom of the frames. Another type of queen cell is the superseding queen cell, which is located higher up on the drawn comb. A superseding queen cell means that the old queen is being replaced because she is not productive or injured or dead. Leave these superseding cells alone! The bees know what they are doing, and why they need this replacement. But, if you want to try and prevent swarms, remove the swarm queen cells from the bottom of the frames.
What do queen cells look like? They are shaped like peanuts and hang out either from the foundation, as with superseding cells, or they hang from the bottom of a frame, as with swarm cells. They are about the size of the first joint on your little finger.
I usually save the cells in a mason jar with air holes in the lid, keeping them in a warm spot in the house, just in case I need a queen. I also have several small hives (nucs) that I store these queens in. It's cheaper than buying queens. Sometimes, I'll have two or three jars full of queen cells on the kitchen table. I'll wake up and while eating breakfast, watch a queen emerge, then take her to her nuc box using a queen cage, slow introduction method.
In closing, I've got to tell you about my swarm capture stocking cap! I got the idea from reading what Langstroth did in his bee yards. He would hang dark woolly items from trees, so that a swarm would light where he had placed the item, instead of high up in the tree. I use a black stocking cap, fill it full of cloth, and hand them around my bee yards. It may not work every time, but when it does, it sure makes the capture much easier. To the bee, the dark, swarm shaped stocking cap looks like the place where other bees have landed.
In our next lesson, I'll explain how to split or divide a hive in the Spring to prevent swarming as well.
Here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, we enjoy providing these free online beekeeping lessons to all who wish to learn more about keeping bees. We are a family operated business that has a passion to see more people enjoy the art of keeping bees. We also believe that to offset the dwindling honeybee population, that more people need to start keeping bees. Feel free to contact us at: 217-427-2678.

We manufacture all hive parts, and we also carry a complete line of everything you need in keeping bees.
Our website is: www.honeybeesoneline.com
Share this with your friends and maybe you can get others to become beekeepers too!
See you next time!

David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
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