Bee Swarm Removal Santa Barbara

I thought it was a bit early for bee swarms, but the rain last week must have enticed these bees to swarm out.  It was a nice sized ball that I swept into a box.  After letting them settle for 45 minutes, I picked up the box and will rehive them in a Langstroth at sunrise.  I'm going to wait until morning because it is now dark and foggy and I think it will be easier on the bees not to disturb them again this late.  In the morning they'll have a box with wax foundation, two swarm lures, and a mason jar feeder with sugar water.  Hopefully this will keep them happy!!!

A nice looking soccer ball size swarm!

Bee Hive Removal Santa Barbara

These bees had found a great archway over a driveway - covered with bougainvillea in full bloom. The bougainvillea was trained over the archway and looked great... the problem was that the vines became so large and heavy over time they pulled the decorative trim off the stucco wall.  Once the trim was off, the bees had a great space to move into.  The owner did not want to open up the stucco to remove the complete hive so I opted for the "Bait Hive" removal method.  

Bee Hive Removal Santa Barbara

Just completed a bait hive project - live bee removal. The hive was inside the wall of a garden enclosure.  This bait hive project was a bit of a challenge.

What is that?  Small TBH Nuc box that has Lang. Med. Super

I sealed up both sides and had the exit cone at the main entrance/exit of the hive. It was very difficult to get a good seal around the air-conditioning plumbing. I had to keep checking every few days until I was sure the bees hadn't found another way back into the original hive. After pruning a bush back, I was able to set the bait hive right next to the exit cone.

Bee Hive Removal Santa Barbara

This was a live bee hive removal in the side of an old out building.  Someone had done a previous hive removal at the same spot.  The old hive was located in the top box area to the right.  There was still old comb and residue left in that area.

Framed openings in side of out building, 3'x3'

Very little new comb was drawn out here.  The bees repopulated the top box to the left and the box below it.  The top, left box was 100% filled with comb.  The box below was 75% filled with mostly newer comb.

Bee Hive Removal Lompoc

A live bee hive removal. I thought this was a good example of how quickly bees can build up comb.  The bees had found a small crack under the roof eaves and had been very busy.  This was a newer hive (approx. 3-4 weeks) as indicated by all the new white comb.  This comb was so new and soft it was difficult to hang on the frames I wanted to put it on.  From the photo you can see 5 separate combs (there were at least 8) and each one was approx. 16 inches in length.

Bee Swarm Removal Santa Barbara

June 24, 2010
A large bee swarm removed from the tree canopy.

Bee Hive Removal Goleta

This was a small live bee hive removal in Goleta.  My 10 year old nephew was in town and was eager to help out.  This photo shows him posing next to the comb that had been drawn out.  This hive was approx. 4 weeks old and enclosed in the space of a double sided fence.  It was a great 1st experience for a new beekeeper.  We rehived in a small TBH nuc box.

First experience with bees. Can you see the smile!

Bee Hive Removal Santa Barbara

Live bee hive removal from a spa. So, one of the initial questions I ask when discussing a removal is "how long have the bees been in this location?"  On this particular job the home owner had thought the bees had just moved into the side of this spa 2-3 weeks ago.  There was a small hole in the side panel of the spa and it was very active with bees coming and going.  Imagine my surprise when I had the side panel removed and saw this...! 

Bee Hive Removal Santa Barbara

This was a live bee hive removal.  The hive was the width of the studs and 8 feet high.  Pretty impressive!

Bee Hive Removal Santa Barbara

Live bee removal.  This bee hive had taken up residence in an irrigation box at a home in Hope Ranch.

Bee Swarm on Palm Frond- Santa Barbara

This was a huge swarm which was in my buddies yard.  He had multiple hives, one of which swarmed... and was unavailable to come get his own bees.  I gladly helped out.  This was the biggest swarm of the season for me.  Notice the gentleman on the other side of the fence.  He helped hold the box while I used big loppers to cut the frond free and place it in a box.  This was at least 3x the size of the normal copy paper box that I use to catch swarms.  I placed this swarm in a Top Bar Hive and in less than a month more than 20 bars had drawn comb... unfortunately some of it was crossed and I had to make some adjustments... (please forgive the terrible photo quality - I usually snap these with my cell phone, not a real camera).

Feral (Natural) Hive - Olive Tree

This was an established feral hive - fully exposed under the canopy of an olive tree.  It was quite large and the comb was drawn out in large, long sheets.  It was a difficult re-hive project since all the comb had sticks protruding from every possible angle.  It was tough to free up pieces to hang on the frames.  It's a bit tough to pick out the detail in the photo, but at this point it was essentially a large mass of comb and sticks.