Relocated Bee Colonies – Bee Hive Sponsorship

In just the past few days, we have attended to three Roof removals and two chimney removals. The roof removals had to be cutouts, the most stressfull interference with the ladies home. The hive is accessed (sounds easy when you say it hey !) and the comb removed and cut to fit into the brood box frames. with as many bees as possible, the remaining bees are then coaxed into the box with their comb and the whole box transported to a secure site with loads of forage and food if needed for their recovery. https://www.facebook.com/Oompetesbees/videos/89424... the chimneys are a little less stressfull on the girls, by "trapping out" we allow the girls to leave the hive but not return and providing a nice cosy alternative adjacent to the original entrance, its hoped they will simply move across. This process takes at leats 31 days, a few days for the queen to realise her workers are not returning to her, so she come out looking for them, hopefully they introduce her to the new catchbox home, and 21 days after that the last of her eggs hatch and develop in to flying bees and join the colony in their new home. the catch box is then relocated to a safe bee friendly site for them to continue to repair and grow the colony in peace. Always the problem with chimney removals is providing a favourable climate for the bees new home, note the catchboxes in the images are installed on the south side of the chimneys so they are not in the full African sun for too long. Oh and the Digital dish receivers are not actually for the bees..... they can't find anything decent to watch either....

Great News! of the seven hives subjected to trapouts, 3 of the colonies absconded to find a new home of their own choosing (they are ladys so what can i say, they have specific needs...;-)). 3 have taken up residence in catch the boxes provided and will shortly be moved to a new site and then upgraded to a full hive oncethey have settled into their new area, and one has seemingly got the genes of Harry Hudini and managed to again access their original Hive, so the trapout needs re sealing. A catch box or two will be left on site once cleared as the latest inspection observed more scout bees checking out the piles of old tyres in the yard. Foraging must be good in the area.

Due to the relocation of a shipping container used by a local company Oom Petes Bees was called to assist in the relocation of a large hive from under a container in order that the container could be safely moved. The hive had been there for many years and was never a bother to the company.

The area under such containers is a very popular place for bees to make their home as it has lots of space to grow into, the container is usually in a secluded spot away from interferences by man or beast, the temperature is pretty constant as the ground and wooden floor provide good insulation from the elements. It is however normally one of the more difficult removal operations, as in order to do a trapout all gaps (access holes) have to be closed off.

In this particular case however, the container was to be moved and forklifts where able to lift the container for access. So in the early evening when the hive was calm, and by crawling under the container a cut- out was

performed - the active comb and honey stores was cut out and placed into frames in a catch box, the queen was successfully taken with and the catch box remained in position for a few days while the colony effected repairs to the comb in their new home using both the remaining wax from their old hive and their familiar material sources from their local and well known foraging ground. The time line for the container relocation did not allow for too long but after a few days the hive was successfully remover to its new home with loads of pollen flowing into the other hives in the apiary. The catch box with colony can be seen here in their new location, with some early morning sun, on tap syrup and surplus wax to assist in the reconstruction process.

These little ladies will also be needing a new larger home by late spring, and will be fed regularly until they have build up their own food stores, and they will only be producing surplus honey for harvest next year. Please help provide these ladies with a new home by donating towards their new full hive.

A very Late (seasonally at least) Hive removal was requested by The South African Police Services in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg. On first inspection not one, but seven separate hives where identified - which would explain why they had suddenly become a nuisance. They where located under three shipping containers on the grounds of the Police station, and where now posing a threat to both the public as well as the officers. Whilst they had been noticed a good while ago only now had people begun to be stung due to their adjacent close proximity and recent clearing of the adjacent area for more parking.

The last of my catch box's and an additional 6 where purchased (at a cost of R2100) and assigned to the task. I requested a payment of just R750 for the entire job to at least cover part of my fuel costs, as it was obvious the trap-out process would take a quite a few visits. Also due to the lateness in the season feeding would be required on a regular basis once the bees had been coaxed into there new homes without their winter stores. This was eventually forthcoming, but from the officers own canteen fund not station or government coffers.

It took 3 visits alone to successfully seal the many hive entrances with the trap-out cones, due to repeated interference by the resident rat population. Then the long wait began with food being provided inside the boxes and waterpoints setup to assist the ladies in the preparation of their new home. There was still some pollen flow of a clean white Pollen, and the bees where marching into their new residence in 4 of the 7 instances. So the chances where good for a reasonably successful transition to a catch box for some of the hives. This at least would minimise the volume of bees once removed from site. Add to this, the normal seasonal decline in numbers, this would resolve the immediate problem with the bee numbers causing an issue in the SAPS yard.

Once settled in the catch boxes, the bees will be finally removed to another area and fed for the winter to ensure their survival. I fear one or more of the hives may not move across and if they swarm off without the promise of winter food may well not survive the winter months.

It is hoped and indeed looks likely that 4 maybe 5 of the 7 are happy with the new facilities (for now) and will also need re homing again into a full sized hive in the late spring months. However bees are quite fickle little ladies and may still decide to take their chances alone. (see updates in comments below)

Due to the close proximity of public areas on a public building these could have faced the very real possibility of extermination. Hence my appeal for assistance with providing hives for the long term survival of hive removals carried out.

Oom Pete