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  • Cut out options and advice..

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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #11498  by Steve 1972
 19 Jul 2021, 16:39
This is a awkward one..i have a friendly couple who are desperate to get rid of the bees from their house but do not have the funds to have the house pulled to bits to have a clean cut out performed..it is a swarm that arrived around five weeks ago the bees are in between the front room ceiling and below the toilet floor boards..they also do not want to kill them..
So this is the only option i can offer them but please feel free to add anything that can help..

The hole in the brick wall is around 10ft high..my plan is to fasten two strong brackets to the wall to take the weight of hive..i will then put a 22mm piece of pipe into the hole the bees are using and put the other end into a pre drilled hole into a hive full of drawn foundation..my theory is that the bees might prefare the drawn comb above them and eventually move out of the house and up into the hive on the outside..any help or advice is much appreciated..
 #11499  by JoJo36
 19 Jul 2021, 18:28
Sounds a good idea and presumably you will spray some lemongrass oil diluted with water or swarm attractant wipes into the receiving hive?
Is there any way you could put a sort of valve or clearer board type thing on to the end of the pipe so the bees cant return??!!
Brackets also sound a good idea!
 #11500  by NigelP
 19 Jul 2021, 18:50
Its not the bees..... but getting the queen out will be the problem.
I'd suggest trying what you have suggested; but if it doesn't work....pretend it has and kill off the colony quietly.
Bees in the wrong place are an absolute nightmare.
 #11501  by Steve 1972
 19 Jul 2021, 19:56
That is the problem Nigel.. the Queen..i can run the lot through a clearer board but i am sure the bees will work it out eventually and come and go as normal..i could drill a hole for the smoker and try smoking them but it will stink the house out and i don't know exactly where the main cluster is..do you think it is suck it and see with my method or could i maybe drop something in there somehow that bees hate the smell of..?..
 #11505  by AdamD
 20 Jul 2021, 09:21
The bees won't leave the brood or queen voluntarily so you would need something like a porter bee escape to ensure that any bees that come out won't go back. In your box on the wall, you could have a frame of brood, say, to encourage the flying bees to stay, you could even allow them to create a queen (or put an old queen there if you had a dodgy one spare). After a couple of weeks or more if you wish, you would have bled off as many of the flying bees as reasonably possible; eventually the colony inside will fail; hopefully with little or no stores remaining. Then block up the hole?
 #11514  by Patrick
 20 Jul 2021, 14:07
Bad luck Steve, I am afraid you are in danger of them making their problem your problem.

If they are desperate to get rid, I am assuming that is because they are regularly finding their way into the house. I think there is zero chance of “enticing” the queen out. If they have been three five weeks there is reason to believe they have drawn combs in there (somewhere). Assuming the workers average only a few weeks in the summer, by the time you have bled then off and put with a new queen many will be running out of puff as it is. I have little positive experience of cut outs or exclusions from buildings where the colony can’t be seen. They easily turn into a saga with a poor and messy outcome.

I would personally explain to the householder 80% of swarms perish in the wild, often because they end up in the wrong place. This is such a case. The householder should get a pest control person in who has access to stuff that is effective and safe. Just don’t do as I once saw advised “just pour in some petrol”… :roll:
 #11520  by Steve 1972
 20 Jul 2021, 19:20
Patrick I have the gear to kill the colony but I choose not to..

Here is the contraption I have rigged up from the rear.
It is double trouble for bees..with a rhombus clearer fastened to a snelgrove board.. :D ..I will bleed the bees out and add a frame of eggs from a good colony( Adams idea) ..all I have to do now is build some scaffolding to sit the box on top of at the correct hieght so the copper pipe línea up with the hole in the house.. :roll:

Ps all spare wooden gear i do not use.. :roll:
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 #11522  by Bobbysbees
 20 Jul 2021, 20:24
you could try drilling a couple of small wholes in the bathroom floor if its not tilled and flooding it with "Bee Quick" used for fume boars. I would try screwing a standard porter bee escape over the entrance whole or popping out the sprung plastic gate and fitting it into the pipe ,and maybe squashing the end so it fits,
At least you would achieve a good trap out that way. I wouldn't bet on getting the queen out but even if not the chances of the hive surviving are pretty slim with near on 99% of the bees gone.
I have used trap outs to get rid of wasps a few times but have been lucky enough not to have to do it with bees.
The alternative is going in through the floor. Not as hard as it sounds so long as its not tiled.