Backwards Beekeepers: Hollywood Hills cut-out
LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:
A call to the Bee Rescue Hotline sent us up to the Hollywood Hills to do a cut-out from an exterior garage wall. The homeowner said that the hive had been there for almost 20 years. There had also been two other hives on the property that other Backwards Beekeepers had removed.
Knowing that the hive had been there such a long time, we were surprised to find just one area with brood comb and an equal amount of space for just honey. It was funny how the bees had set up the hive: on the left of one wall stud was the brood and on the right (between the next set of studs) was the honey. There was very little crossover.
This hive was just barely hanging in there. Leah put the brood and bees into Rob’s handmade nucs and brought them to one of her queenless hives.
We checked the hive the next day and there were some bees on the comb, but not many. There were also a bunch of bees left in the wall that didn’t want to go into the nuc box that I had left there, so I’ll need to move them on another night.
—roberta