Carol, I had to chuckle about how enthused we are compared to the beekeeper lol! I'd bee like ooooo-oooo, I gotta seeeeeee! O.k. Carol, I do disagree a tiny bit with your apiarist. He was saying "board it up in the fall". I say no need to do this. From all the research I've read, bumblebees never reuse an old nest and rebuild one from scratch every year. An old nest tends to just fall away and disintegrate. Carol there are several clues on how to tell a bumblebee from a honeybee. A bumble bee has far less "abdomen" (honeybee's abdomen is much more elongated). A bumblebee tends to be very bulky and tumbles and bumbles around in its flight pattern, whereas a honey bee zeroes in cleaner flight patterns. Bumblebees have far less stripes as well. They also have a heavier thorax (the mid-section). It's very easy to tell a honeybee apart from a bumblebee, but some solitary bees can look a little bit closer to a bumblebee. If that bee looks fuzzy, it isn't a wasp for sure! Wasps have very hard shells and "loud" patterns on their stripes (too much contrast)or very odd protrusive body divisions. They look pretty yucky, lol! and a wasp isn't going to have pollen smeared saddlebags either, that's for sure, lol! Wasp legs tend to be very angular and yucky! I have full confidence in you! I'm sure you did not! mistake a wasp for a bee!

They are bees as a few occassionally fly into the house. We had them checked to make sure they were not africanized. We also observe them through binoculars from time to time to verify their habits and condition of the house as we know it will all have to be replaced. At this point they are not into the attic, although we have had a couple of strays, it is only a matter of time as there is access. I will keep looking for a bee keeper. I just wanted to know, I guess if there would be ones who would take it on reguardless of its size and location, since I am not concerned with the damage on the house as it is being replaced. Thanks for encouragment. Time is drawing to a point where I must make a decision quickly.

Gene.. You might be waiting for a long time to get a swarm in, might get lucky if you're near another bee keeper? I think cpp wanted to say lemon grass oil. Best to get going is to purchase one or two packages, two packages is preferd, then you have something to compare with. Inner cover is more of a colder climate thing but it might be also beneficial to you, it's used also to feed in spring and fall here. You can work the hive somewhat without opening completely, thus making bee keeping more pleasureful. In winter I put insulation on top of inner cover with a empty box. Also, inner cover has a slot for top entrance and ventilation, this entrance is good in winter when bottom gets all snowed in, bees use it for cleansing flight when temperature is above frezzing, bees still need some air flow, coming from bottom and out the top...inner covers are a good thing in our climate. Sugar water will get robed by other bees, it doesn't get you a swarm. You can also hang cardboard boxes up into trees with a bit of old bees wax or comb,.. Google swarm lure. You don't need frames to lure swarms, frames are only good to manage the hive better,...like inspecting, collecting and extracting honey. Konrad

wow, i hadn't thought of the smoking aspect as a drain on bee health, but almost certainly it must be true. smoking almost any substance at all is a great way of turning it toxic. just recently i did a little research on the additives to tobacco and discovered the federal loophole that lets manufacturers add anything at all to cigarettes as long as it's an approved food additive... collectively which go on to produce something like 40+ known carcinogens. which are totally unregulated, because the only 'inspection point' is what's in a cig -before- combustion. getting back to the bees, great article on discover: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/oct/19-who-killed-all-those-honeybees-we-did the whole thing becomes much less of a mystery at this point and the prime culprit is identified- man-made impoverishment of bees gene pools. but other problems are listed as well- such as beekeepers feeding bees corn syrup during the winter (nutritional and immune system disaster) and forcing them to single crops during the pollination season (a lesser disaster) Here is a link that might be useful: Who killed all those honeybees- we did.