Trying to capture a hive from a light pole

[Enci Box]

Hello Bee Lovers,

So, we have a light pole on our street that has a hive inside. The bottom of the pole was full of bees, so we couldn’t see how big the hive is or if there is a hole in the pole. We went out with a box with honey in it and started scooping up the bees. We didn’t have any protective gear or smoke, so we used sugar water to calm the bees.

When we scooped up the bees from the bottom of the pole, we noticed that they started to build combs on the outside of the pole. Bees were pouring out from the light pole but of course the queen bee is most likely inside the pole. (Here is a video of our experiment: http://youtu.be/SOGyjJz-7Dw)

We ended up leaving the box by the pole and put inside lemon grass, honey, sugar water sprayed on the stick, and several sticks with bees wax to coax them into the box from the pole.

My question is this:

– Can we take the worker bees with us without the queen? If so, what do we do with the worker bees? Do we buy a queen?
– Can we coax the bees with the queen bee into our box, to give them a new home? If so, how long will they take to move?
– What other options do we have to capture the swarm?

Thank you and Happy 4th of July!

Enci

[susan rudnicki]

Your video appears to show a swarm cluster that has come to rest on the base of the pole. If so, they often leave small globs of wax behind that don’t indicate comb building for permanence. If this is a swarm, you must be sure to scoop up the queen into the box, or the bees will not go in, no matter how much of the other enticements you have placed—she is the main enticement, with her pheromones. Worker bees without a queen can be newspapered into another hive that has a need for additional workers, but will not be viable without a queen if placed in a hive. Buying queens is something I know nothing about—most purchased queens don’t live long and are not ferals, like the bees in the video you posted.
If the queen is in the swarm box, the other bees will move in after her in about 10 minutes. This box will not suffice for a permanent home, however. They need a hive with bars or frames you can manage and examine if you want beekeeping that is user friendly.
If in fact this is a hive living in the pole, and it is casting a swarm because the space is crowded, you need to do a trap-out operation to bait the bees out. This requires covering all entrances except the main one where you place a one-way wire mesh trap cone door. A nuc box, baited with frames of brood is required to bait the thwarted forager bees to occupy the new hive you are establishing for them. Often the queen inside the main hive does NOT leave, but starves to death as the old hive is de-populated.
Trap-outs require resources you may not have—frames of capped brood from another hive that is strong—and is a skill that you could use a mentor for gaining experience and coaching. Trap-outs can take up to a couple months, depending on the size of the original hive.
By the way, with the honey/sugar water/dead bees laying around, your swarm box in the video is likely to be quickly overrun with Argentine ants always on patrol. I would watch it closely.

[Enci Box]

Susan,

Thank you so much for your wonderful, thorough reply!

Today we bought a box with foundationless frames and will try to capture and relocated the excess bees. We will inspect our own new hive to see if there are any capped brood and hopefully some queen cells as well, which we are planning to put into the queenless hive. This will be an interesting experiment and hopefully a successful one. I will also look into the one-way wire mesh to trap them out. Wish us luck!

Thank you again! Your answer gave me many options and made me learn much more about bees then I expected, when my husband found this hive. 🙂

[susan rudnicki]

I will put some answers within your note—

Today we bought a box with foundationless frames and will try to capture and relocated the excess bees. —–please read the “Idiot’s Guide to Beekeeping” as recommended reading on the HL site. Without a queen, these bees have no reason to draw comb or occupy the box you have placed them in. Bee society operates by some very specific rules, and pheromones from queen and brood guide much of the colonies decisions. This you will see if you get some good guidance under your belt.
We will inspect our own new hive to see if there are any capped brood and hopefully some queen cells as well, which we are planning to put into the queenless hive.——A new hive does not draw queen cells unless they are superceding a defective queen. Swarming is the only other time a colony draws queen cells, and this is in response to crowding and reproductive impulse. Capped brood also would not help a queenless hive, as this is not the age of young bee needed to make a replacement queen. A larva of the age 3 days or younger is the ONLY one to meet the criteria for a replacement queen cell. After that, the larva is too old to influence by feeding of queen royal jelly. Also, taking resources from a newly established hive, as you describe your other one, is setting them back from gaining the strength they will need going into winter and the Fall dearth.
This will be an interesting experiment and hopefully a successful one. I will also look into the one-way wire mesh to trap them out.—- Again, trapping out with a bait box of frames of capped brood, set as near to the only exit as possible, is a long term, resource dependent operation. The light pole is in a very public walkway area and my first thought is, malicious mischief makers would kick it over, throw it, or otherwise mess with it. Trap-outs in public locations always have more going against them. Wish us luck!

Thank you again! Your answer gave me many options and made me learn much more about bees then I expected, when my husband found this hive. 🙂

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