Taking a bee course or class in your area would be a good first step. Getting equipement, preferably new, this way you know that you'r not getting somebody's desase. Taking bees out ot a building without any loss is not easy, normally it will kill many bees, especially when done later in season when combs are heavy with honey, sometimes then the comb collapses and bees get traped and killed. The hardest thing is to get the queen. What I would do is this...build a modified super [bee box] with one side or back completely open, this side attachted to the cut open wall where the combs are, not too high and not to low..about center of brood area. Fill box with about 7 frames foundation, best use drawn foundation, put a little brood with bees from wall into the box for a bait. Eventually when the hive expands, the queen will go in there and lay eggs...hopefully??...make sure you're limiting their space in the wall, perhaps you have to close off some with wood. Bees will eventually use the hive box entrance also to get in and out to their colony...then you can seal off other holes they used to use. The hive should be checked first about after 1 or 2 weeks, or sooner at the peak of the season, then every second day or so until you see the queen. One's you spot her, take the box off the wall, close off the side of box, best leave the box within 3 feet the first couple of day's until they settled. Take out all comb with brood and put in hive with some honey. Perhaps use a second box if full? Clean out the wall completey, seal any holes, put back siding and and seal again. You possibly have more then 1 hive in this house, I have seen a similar situation with about 3 hives. There are allot of bee books out there, read a lot, check out Beesource Forum and read from other bee keepers. I have done a similar contraption,.. I made some brackets and attached the hive to the wall with about a 2 " hole in the hive box......it didn't work very well because I couldn't cut open the wall, I'm sure, this [new] way should work much better. Konrad

Marie, as long as they look good and you have new brood in your primary hive body below - I wouldn't worry about your schedule too much. If they are building at a good pace, then you can put that honey super on somewhere in July. I would go into the hive right before you do this (or the day of) and look through both your bottom hive body and your top hive body and check to see that the queen is laying well and that everything is progressing as it should.

Good for you! I wouldn't cut out comb...risk of killing queen. Open one side of box, top or bottom which ever works best, then set it on top of brood box. If it happens you have to turn upside down the box even better, they move out more quickly but nurse bees would stay for a while tending brood. If the box doesn't cover brood box, you could cover the rest with cardboard. Put a frame feeder into the brood box and feed & feed until they drawn at least one deep super,...if that's what your intentions are? Here we go with two deep. Setting the box over the frames, you can't use the inner cover, that's fine, set the box to one side that you have access to a couple of frames, [move cardboard] to fill your frame feeder and check frames for progress. Make sure you seal up any entrance to the box, they now have access from your main entrance, [bottom board] ..you might need a reducer, especially when traffic is low, helps against robbing.

Dena...I am in Spring. Had them in my wall. Was terrified of them and the price to remove. I thought it would be thousands of dollars to remove in a wall.Thank G-d they just set up shop in that wall and that I noticed them. I called : http://www.bayoucitybees.com/ The nice man came out, and it was like $250-275. Amazing job. He was such a noce young man and talked me thru it! Here is a link that might be useful: Bayou City Bees