I am going to raise Bees...

At about the age of 12 I discovered the stories or should I say the adventures of Sherlock Homes.  That came about after one of the kids at school had "No shit Sherlock" to something I had said.  Within a few hours one of my brothers friends had a book of Sherlock Holmes stories.  I ask him about it and he lent me the book.  It was wonderful and that was from a kid that would do almost anything than read a book.

I now have book, video tapes and CDs of adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  In a few of the stories when Sherlock was down and not able to find a good case to work on he would state that he was going to retire to Wales and raise Bees.   I have used that as one of my own sayings for years.  It always got the "are you crazy" glance.

Well now that I am officially retired I have gotten a bee hive.  My wife was at first not to keen on the idea.  She is a master gardener and like the bees for her garden but I thought she thought I was a bit crazy. 8-)

She now is as much or more thrilled about them as I am.  It was not as easy or as hard to get started with bees as I thought.  We went to a local bee keeping association first.  I went to the library and got a how to keep bees book and found plans on making a hive.  Being cheep  frugal, I built my first hive box.  One of the persons I met at the bee meeting was a old guy, a little older than me that, that said he new of a swarm we could get for the box.  FREE!  That fit my price range.  8-)

With my bee box and the gloves, hive tool, veil, smoker and bee brush I met him and he took me to a old house that had a bee swarm in the wall of the house. This old guy in flip flops, shorts and a old shirt went right up to wall and with an electric saw cut a hole in the side of the old house where the bees were.  He smoked them a bit but that was it.  He had me cut a few more boards out ( Me fully covered with long pants with legs taped closed, veil, gloves, long sleeve shirt) Once the bee combs were exposed, he cut brood comb from the nest and put it in my hive box.  With no protection he scooped bees out of the hive with a large red Solo Cup and we dumped them in the hive box.  He said each cup full was about 500 bees. I lost count after 5 cups. He said if he had gotten the queen in the box the rest of the swarm would move into the box. He smoked the nest in the wall to help get them to move to the box.  He then said we could come back at night fall when all the bees were in the box, plug up the door opening, strap the top to the hive and take them to my house.

That was my first adventure with bees.  The swarm size was about the  35000 size and the box made a nice humming sound when we moved it. I was a bit on guard driving home with the bees in the back of the truck.  I also was sharing the cab of the truck with about 4 or 5 bees.  I left them alone and they left me alone. 

The cops often set up a speed trap on the road to our house.  I though it would have been fun for a cop to pull me over and ask whats in the box.

We now have 2 hives.  I can see why Sherlock Holmes wanted to raise bees.  The old crazy bee guy...I really like him!!!

Bees invaded my boat.

Some times of the year bees swarm.   When a hive or bees nest reaches a population that is becoming to small for the population a swarm splits off and looks for another home to nest in.  The warm usually finds a high tree or pole or even a boat mast to collect on and scout bees go out and look for a new nest place.  A boat is as good a place as any to nest in.

It only takes a few days for a swarm to build comb and start a new home.  Removing a bees nest can be big problem.  The bees like a small door that can be easily guarded with a nice space behind it.  They will wall off small cracks and seal the area off to make a nice home.

Getting rid of the bees them self's is less of a problem then cleaning out the nest.  Bees do not like smoke and they become "mellow" and are much less likely to sting when smoked.  Just by smoking the nest a few times in a short time span may get the swarm to move on.  Bees do not like there nest disturbed more than every few weeks by a bee keeper and they will often leave a hive if messed with often.  You can use that to help them want to leave. This I feel is the best way to clear the boat of a  swarm.  A wet dry vac can be used to suck the bees out of an area. Yes it dose kill a lot of or most of the bees.  The queen bee is the one that you need to get rid of.  If you do not get the queen she can rebuild the swarm. 

A note for your information: Between 10 am and 5 pm most of the bees are out of the nest and getting food. At that time you have to deal with the fewest bees. BUT the ones out come back late in the afternoon. If you used a vac to clear the nest  in the day you will get a lot of returning bees that afternoon so be prepared for that. 

Local bee keepers will often help you out. If you can get at the nest easily you can smoke them and scoop them out and dump them in a bee box.  You can get the queen this way.  If you contact a local bee keeper they often will help you or do it for free just to get the swarm. Bee keepers have a few different ways of getting or collecting a swarm that is not destructive to the boat. Ask them.

Once the bees are out of the nest you will want to clean out as much of the comb they have built as you can.  It can be a sticky honey mess.  If you got the swarm to leave just by smoking you will find that bees from that swarm will come back and remove much of the honey they had to leave and move it to there new home.
They do a great job, but after a few days you will want to clean up what is left. If you do not clean the area out, you can have a bad smell develop, a BIG ant problem bust to list two. Other bees will find it and they could build a new nest because of the left over smell of the first nest.  This often happens within 6 mo. so be on the watch for it.