Bees?

[Thewife]

Hi folks!
Was wondering if you could answer a few bee questions from some one who knows NOTHING about bees? (please?)

Supposedly a friend found a small honey bee nest with the queen.
He wants to bring it over here today and find it a new home?

I don't have 1 of them cool little white bee boxes, not really into the honey thing at this moment, so that's no biggy!
I do have a semi hollow ceder log?
Or I could build something?
Or............. any ideas?
Is it even worth hassling with?

 

[Beekissed]

It's worth it!!! Get a large resin flower pot from Wally World(one of those square shaped ones), drill a hole at the base, place some 2x2 boards across the top and place a piece of tin or other appropriate rain shed on top of those. Shake the bees into this container and put the bars and top back on. Wait half a day until all bees have followed your queen into your nuc box and cork it off for transport. You can find corks of varying sizes in kitchen supplies at WW.

This will be your temporary nuc box until you can build a handy dandy top bar hive out of scrap lumber you have around the place. Then you just take the bars and bees out of your nuc and place it in your hive box!

It's probably not that simple but its better than doing nothing at this point. You could have free bees!

 

[Thewife]

Thanks Bee, a trip to Wally world is out of the question.

But, just putting them in "something" will be ok until I can build something?
Does the queen need anything to crawl on or in?
Do I just let them be free until I come up with something else?
Can I move them?
Am I nuts?

 

[Beekissed]

ANN!!!!!! Hey, all you beeks....help this dear lady!!!!!!

She needs more help than I can give here!!! I'm a newbie!!!

 

[the simple life]

What does your friend have them in now?
The bees won't stay if they don't like their new home.
Sometimes even when bees are put into a regular hive they will fly off if it doesn't feel right.
I kind of doubt they will stay in the cedar log. Usually after hiving a swarm you need to close the hive up for a couple of days with an entrance reducer so that the queen can't fly out, the rest of the colony won't leave without her.
However entrance reducers are designed so that the worker bees can still fly in and out but since the queen has had to slim down before they swarmed she most likely would fit through the holes in the reducer as well so you have to make some adjustments.
I really think you would be better off getting a hive together with some frames.
You should rub some lemongrass oil on the frames (just a small amount) to get them interested in the hive.
While wild bees and sometimes swarms will take up residence in an old log hiving them in one and making them stay is a different story.
Also its illegal to keep bees in the United States in a hive that does not have removable frames due to disease and the fact that you literally have to destroy the hive in order to harvest honey.
If its only semi hollow even if you got them to stay it would be short term because when they run out of room to expand the colony they will swarm or even abscond.
You can do what Bee suggests or go to a bee supply company and get a couple of brood boxes to start.
They are not expensive but everything else involved if you stay with it can add up if you don't keep it simple.
You can build topbar hives with scrap lumber you have lying around, they are the simplest form of beekeeping.
I have both the langs and the topbars but I don't use manufactured sheets of beeswax, I put in the empty wood bars for them and they always build comb off of them no problem.
Another thought is just to leave them be, how does your friend the queen is there? Has he already removed them from wherever they were living?
Is he sure they are honey bees? I ask this because when you refer to it as a honeybee nest it makes me think of other types of bees.
I realize you or he could just be referring to the hive as a nest but just trying to clarify things.
I have had people call me to remove swarms that turn out to be other types of bees.
Where are/were they living? Not to be a downer, but while I like to catch swarms when they land on tree branches, birdhouses etc. I would never remove a honeybee colony from an established hive in the wild.
There is a difference between capturing a swarm that is hanging out somewhere temporarily while the scout bees look for a more permanent home and a colony that is in a working hive.
If they are doing fine where they are I wouldn't disrupt them, the bees in general are having a hard time as it is and we need those good survivor genetics to continue in the wild.
Another option would be to set up a swarm trap near their hive, when they do throw their natural swarms to reproduce many times they will go right into the swarm trap and you can hive that.
I hope you can find a solution that works for you and the bees, good luck.

 

[reinbeau]

What the simple life said. Get a real hive body and some frames. It's the best way to hive a swarm.

 

[journey11]

Beekeeping is downright amazing, but being that you are not prepared for these bees and don't know anything about bees right now, I'd say you might be better off to call your county ext. agent or local beekeeping club and see if they can get someone to come out who will take the hive off your friend's hands.

I dove headfirst into beekeeping last year, getting a started hive in the fall from an elderly gentleman who was down in his health and needed to hurry and remove them from his neighbor's yard. Being October, I didn't have to do much to them as they were bedding down for winter. This gave me all winter to scour the internet, read two books and order equipment. Knowing now what a large undertaking it was, I don't think I'd want to be in your shoes right now. Not to discourage you from beekeeping, but you will want a little time to prepare yourself and gather knowledge on the subject.

If you want to press forward and make a home for them at your place now, here's some plans for a Warre hive that might be of interest to you. If you have a little foundational knowledge in carpentry you can probably build this yourself pretty easily. These have been the only free plans that I've come across online so far. There are other styles of hives to consider as well. If you try to order hive parts from a catalog, it will likely take at least 2 weeks to arrive. This is their busy time of year.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes...

 

[Thewife]

Thank you so much for the info everybody, but after asking here, scouring the internet and feeling like I have taken on another big project I'm not prepared for, the bees got here!
They are Bumble bees!
A momma, a few babies and some eggs! Not sure what I am going to do with them yet?

The Hubby and I have discussed getting Honey bees, I learned alot yesterday and think I might kinda be ready to start that adventure! (that just means it was put up higher on the list of a million other things I want to do)

Thank you journey11 for the plans! I could not find any yesterday and I like the looks of that hive much better than just white boxes! We had a sawmill out here recently, I have a HUGE pile of scrap wood to play with!