The last time we went to Kona Irrigation I had to get on the roof. This time all I had to do was get on a ladder. The ceiling was only 10 feet up so that wasn’t so bad. What I hate is that sometimes there are pipes everywhere, in this case it was hard to reach up and scrape the comb out.
We got the call about bees in a storage bin on a condo lanai. They we learned it was on the 10 floor. That is the highest we have ever removed bees, I don’t know how the scouts found the bin this high. The people were so nice, by the time we left most of the bees were in the nuc.
People ask what we do with he bees. This is one of the places we have bees. All of these are either swarms or removals. They two groups of hives in two different locations. They are doing well and we hope to get honey next year. It takes about two years to get them to the place where they are strong enough to give up honey.
Our neighbor came by our house and said he had bees in his ceiling. Funny thing was that he knows we do this kind of work, but didn’t put two and two together until he was talking to a friend about it. The friend said she knew someone who does a great job, then told him about us. We went to to remove the bees. The problem for me is heights, I can’t stand them. His house is built on stilts and from this room the drop was make 50 feet. We covered the window and that worked for me. We started cutting into the ceiling with our multitool. We thought we were hitting a beam or something because the thing wouldn’t cut, and there was sawdust falling. I got my saw out and started cutting. When the piece came out we saw it was 3/4 inch plywood for the ceiling.
We got the call from a condo project we have removed bees from before. When we got there I looked closely and saw the bees had cleaned the entrance to the hive. They were using the hole used to pull up the top. I put my suit on and tried to get the top up. It wasn’t budging, so I told the manager we had to come back. We came back a few days later and opened it up. There was a good amount of comb and bees. But we did see that the queen was old, and was laying in a shotgun pattern. People watched from their lanai’s.
This is what we call a shotgun pattern. This means the queen is old and the hive is getting ready to replace her. This was from a removal we did from a sprinkler control box.
That’s what they said when I asked how long the thought the bees had been in there. Thankfully Mike the Marine (see a previous post) was there to help. We opened the cabinet and saw comb filling the top half of the cabinet. It was maybe 18 inches wide by 1 foot deep and about 18 inches from the top to the shelf. Comb filled every inch of that space. Mike wanted another hive and brought an empty hive. We fill 6 of 10 frames full of comb and still threw away about 10 pounds of wax.
We had three calls for bees in compost bins in as many weeks. That is a record for us, usually we get maybe one or two for the whole bee season. It is warm and mostly dry inside. There is usually room to build and is protected, whats not to like.
They were in the storage bin that they kept much of the gardening equipment in. I’m not sure how much they liked it because as soon as I moved the comb and much of the bees into the nuc the rest followed fairly easily.
One of the things I like about doing this is the interesting things you get to see and find in peoples yards and houses. The guy told me that “back in the day” it was hard and very expensive to buy a smoker here in Hawaii. Most people made their own out of whatever they had on hand. He knew someone who worked at a place that imported wine by the barrel. He bought an old barrel and turned it into a smoker. He has been using it for many years. However the design of a smoker is a perfect place for bees. I got them out and everyone was happy.