[Ronni Kern]

Thanks so much! Okay, I will get the little bee yard enclosure built this weekend.

[Ronni Kern]

I am guessing the girls have moved in! But it is totally a guess because I never saw the huge cloud of bees descend, the way I did when a swarm first moved into a dead tree in the front yard years ago. There is, however, a definite stream in and out of the trap. Everyone seems very focused and busy.

Given that what I stuck in the tree was an 8-frame (foundationless) medium box, how long should I leave it there before hiring a mentor and getting the girls down to ground level? My instinct is that I should let them get some comb built and maybe some brood laid before disrupting them but again, but I really know extraordinarily little about all of this and would appreciate some advice (and a mentor!) I am in the wilds of Santa Monica… and I do mean wilds. A bobcat walked into the house last month.

[Ronni Kern]

Hey Susan, I tried your phone number but no answer or voice mail. Hence, trying this. I will also try your email. I am definitely up for doing this cut-out with you. I have a full suit and gloves and can be available on Tuesday. I am, however, a total newbie if that is an issue.

[Ronni Kern]

Oh, that’s great. I’ll call you as soon as I get a screen up. Don’t want to be changing the habitat once the girls are in residence. Thanks!

[Ronni Kern]

Susan, thanks so much for your thoughtful response. Based on all your extremely cogent points, I have moved the hive off the deck and once more into the backyard. No bees or honey in the bedroom for me! This time, however, I found an alternative to the depressingly shady spot behind the garage where I had started. The new location is reasonably sunny and yet still out of the way of harvesting fruit (I have 25 fruit trees plus blackberries and boysenberries in my normal city backyard so it gets tricky). I had already built a stand out of some redwood 2x6s left over from a deck restoration, so I will have Tanglefootable legs should the ants appear (though that rebar one also sounds appealing). All I need now is a 7′ high screen to get the girls up and out of our hair and I’ll be good to go (son, brother and nephew range from 6’2″ to 6’7″ so a six-foot screen is not going to be enough). Which does bring me to obtaining a mentor. I am in Santa Monica and I know you’re in the South Bay, so probably too far for mentoring. Do you know any Honeylove people in the Santa Monica/West LA area who are also available for compensated mentoring? I actually don’t need a mentor immediately since I still have no bees; but as you can probably tell, I like to be prepared. The swarm tends to show up in early May but I’m thinking this year it’ll be early. Hope so, since the girls will have to find the box in the backyard instead of their now fallen-down tree in front. I stuck some of their old honeycomb in it, though, so I’m hoping that will be a clue.

[Ronni Kern]

Wow, what great photos! I am so inspired (though, really, I want that tree house). Thanks for the links.

[Ronni Kern]

Ruth, thanks so much for all the valuable information. I am in fact in Santa Monica where I will be registering the hive, so conforming to their particular regulations is necessary for me. The deck in question does have a pretty solid wood floor (with the occasional knot hole). It has fairly widely-spaced railing uprights so I figured I would place the hive with an opening oriented to one of those openings which would give the girls free sailing out into the orchard below. Since the hive would be easily 30′ from that property line (and the pool beyond), I’m assuming that will be okay. I intend to put some sort of water source between hive and pool.

The deck, however, does have a roof which is good in that it eliminates beating sun but bad because I am not sure if there are four hours of direct sun up there. I will have to watch. To get to it is simply a matter of opening the door in our bedroom and walking out. No ladders involved. My husband likes to hang his wet tee shirts and towels out there but that can stop. Otherwise it is not used at all.

As you intuited, I am surrounded by people with pools and young children (either kids or grandkids) so if my hive were to be ground level and in the backyard (ie away from nervous front-yard eyes) it would definitely mean orienting west and again, I am not totally sure about the four hours of sun thing (I have two enormous bay laurel trees on the south side of my lot which makes the whole thing shady, especially in winter. I would severely prune them but my neighbors on that side also have a dense hedge at least 12′ high and probably more… so shade shade shade)

I am extremely intrigued by your notion of a “bee cabana” because that had been my original notion for the front yard location where the wild bees had been with no problems for anyone. The mailman used to walk right by the hive without even noticing it. I had been discouraged from it, however, by Ormond Aebi’s book where he discusses bees needing twenty feet of take-off before a fence; and his cabana being thirty feet square. No way I have that much room!

I will be getting a fuzzy black puppy in the spring, so I have Milt’s concerns about wanting to keep her safe. Thank you for addressing that. Another argument for the deck I suppose. Again, thanks so much for all this information to work with. I look forward to meeting you at the January meetings.

[Ronni Kern]

Well, then there’ll be at least two of us with high-rise hives. I’m hoping one of the experts weighs in; otherwise I’ll raise the issue again at the next gathering.

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