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acwest_gw

suggestions for moving a feral hive?

acwest
17 years ago

This hive is located in a friend's barn, up about 8 feet and behind an easily removed siding board. I'm thinking to rig ladder jacks and a plank to work from. I am thinking that I will be using the smoker a lot. I am told by an interested party (but not interested enough to it himself!) that I could take the comb and tie it into frames with twine. This way I could get lucky and get the queen as well as the comb and all the bees at home at the time. The few pictures I've seen of feral hives show that wild comb hangs in sheets sort of like framed comb, so this seems messy but do=able.

I would fill as many frames as possible, and pitch the other scrapings into a hive body of my own, screen the opening and take the whole thing home, hoping that the bees would eventually reconfigure their own comb, or use the supplies to rebuild on plastic or wax foundation. If I could take some honey I would, but in a feral colony wouldn't it be difficult to separate from the brood area?

Is any of this a good idea? What else might I need to know or do? would there be a prefered time of day or evening for this operation? If I missed the queen or mashed her, what would the queenless bees do in their new location? And if their new location were in my front yard with two other colonies, would there be robbing of the semi-disorganized feral colony or any other problems?

I want the bees, the colony, mainly for curiosity and the challenge, but more of my knowledge comes from reading than from experience, so a reality check would be useful!

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