[susan rudnicki]

Max—since my own fountain attracts hummingbirds, butterflies and all sorts of other small birds to drink and sometimes bathe, I would not want them consuming Pinesol. The gutters around here, where I see birds drinking, are already a polluted mess of oil, pesticides and fertilizer, and dog poop runoff (and who knows what else!) so I would like at least one clean source they can have.
It pays to always consider the consequences of what we do to change the things we don’t like.

[susan rudnicki]

Hi, Mr Browns—thanks for the clarification. One of my childhood friends was “Alicia” so I had a 50% chance of addressing you correctly.
I have simply copied the note you posted on July 3rd at 1:36 pm. You asked “what is this about?” after my post for swarm box adoptions that day.
I answered you, but I think you did not read the answer. So I posted it again.
I do sell nucs with queen right colonies and have posted those, as well. I use the language “for sale” But those are quite different from a swarm box, which is passing from Sam and Wendy’s business to me to re-home.
There are MANY swarms trolling the air over LA, but not too many beeks looking to adopt them or knowing how to gather them with the greatest success. This is one of the skills we are trying to teach, however, at the meetings HoneyLove has for beeks every last Sunday of the month. You would meet other people with lots of questions and answers and a great networking group to come to the meetings. Also, reading the basic beekeeping book for organic, foundationless, treatment free management would be the “Idiot’s Guide to Beekeeping” by Stiglitz and Herboldsheimer

[susan rudnicki]

Ms Browns—I think you do not read the answers to your own questions here! I answered for you, but want to make clear—there is no charge for my being the “bee broker” I am simply trying to get the bees taken by a commercial bee removal service to a good home. I DO vet the folks calling, to be sure they have a modicum of education, some mentoring connections, and the correct safety equipment. I do not just pass bees off to anyone.

elisha browns
Participant

?What is this about?
July 3, 2014 at 1:36 pm #8766 Reply
susan rudnicki
Participant

I work with a commercial pair, Wendy and Sam Sorenson, who remove bee swarms from clients homes for a fee. Wendy or Sam box up the bees with a screened window on the box, and bring them to my house to post for re-homing. I have been doing this 2 1/2 years now. These are swarm box adoptions, with the bees needing to be hived as soon as possible after capture. I am the “middleman”

[susan rudnicki]

I don’t understand the logic of this post—

Awesome congrats!!Now the next step is to buy a hive tool and a beekeepers suit.( ASAP)The bees will start building queen cells and then your bees will fly away.

Bees don’t draw queen cells unless they have a queen who is failing or defective (called “superceding”) or they are planning to swarm.
A newly establishing swarm does not build queen cells as a first order of business—they have no eggs to make a queen from, so this is impossible. They also do not have the pheromone guidance to do so. If a swarm does not have a queen that is fertile traveling with them, they are doomed as a colony. If they have a virgin queen with them, she will need about 2 weeks to go on her mating flights to be mated with drones in the vicinity.
The bees of a queen-less swarm WILL “fly away” (as the note says) unless they are added to a queen right colony by newspapering in.
It is a better strategy to purchase protective clothing and certain simple tools such as smoker and hive tool, BEFORE beginning to work with bees. Not all bee colonies are docile and accepting of us humans messing with them. Better to be safe than sorry.

[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. 🙂

[susan rudnicki]

There is nothing to be done—I got a call from a homeowner annoyed with the bees clogging his fountain intake pump, as they drowned and got caught in the screen. I told him, clean the screen more often, put a sponge in the water to allow them to crawl out or land more easily without being pulled under the water.

[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.

[susan rudnicki]

Josip took these

[susan rudnicki]

Roland—I have am listing swarm box adoptions almost every day from this site. If you just follow the forum posts daily, you will see these offers of bee swarms for adoption. Please provide us with some info about yourself—where are you located, what kind of hive you are placing them in (TBH or Langstroth) how you have been getting educated to keep bees or if you are a current beekeeper. You may also call me directly at 310-374-4779 to be placed on the list of people wanting swarm box adoptions and we can talk in person. Thanks Susan
310-374-4779

[susan rudnicki]

In doing the “debt analysis” it is important to consider how much more money doing nothing about the problems is going to cost in the long run. Humans are NOT good about taking the long view.

[susan rudnicki]

I work with a commercial pair, Wendy and Sam Sorenson, who remove bee swarms from clients homes for a fee. Wendy or Sam box up the bees with a screened window on the box, and bring them to my house to post for re-homing. I have been doing this 2 1/2 years now. These are swarm box adoptions, with the bees needing to be hived as soon as possible after capture. I am the “middleman”

[susan rudnicki]

There is a fine children’s book (maybe adults need it, too) called “Everyone Poops” All organisms have waste products from digestion that need to be excreted. Bee poop is often bright yellow, from the pollen they eat, and falls in little droplets from the sky as they fly, going onto cars, laundry or anything else below. I often find a lot of it on my white car after taking a cutout where my car is parked near the bee site. That these people in NZ want to sanitize life to the point where they complain of bee poo makes me think they belong locked up indoors somewhere where none of Nature impedes.

[susan rudnicki]

Elliot—thanks for your articulate questions. However, it would probably be easier to answer these in person on the phone. I live in Manhattan Beach and have 8 Langstroth hives. I mentor quite a few folks. Also, you should make a strong effort to attend the HL meetings—there is one this Sunday. Call me at 310-374-4779 Susan

[susan rudnicki]

HI, David—it would be helpful to the readers if you told us the types of hive—TBH, Langs, nucs—their sizes, and their demeanor. If you have any hot hives, folks should know. If the city is just after you for a code violation, that is different. It is helpful to fill in the story. Susan

[susan rudnicki]

These are now gone, but I have 3 more that are almost ready—call if you are interested Susan

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