Saving a hive and making a new beekeeper

We love stories about making new beekeepers! Here's the latest one.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Tyson writes:

Mark V. attended his first Backwards Beekeepers meeting in August. He had bees that had made a home inside the front wall of his family’s house. He wanted them removed, but not killed—he was ready to become a beekeeper!

After talking to him for a while I decided that I’d help him get those bees out and into a new home. He was enthusiastic and insisted on helping and I was grateful for an extra hand.

The hive had been building for several months, and had lots of
healthy brood and several pounds of capped honey as well.

Mark is ready to go!

This cut out was ideal in that it was at chest height, in the shade and made up of beautiful long thin combs for easy measurement.

After some practice Mark worked like a pro, carefully sizing and aligning
the comb upright without damaging the nurse bees with the rubber bands.

Over half done!

The bees know what to do

On his Facebook page, Kirk writes:

Me and Val did a cut out, oh, about a month ago. It was big and ran down below the foundation wall. We could only get 40% of the hive out. So we took 4 big frames of open Brood and nurse bees. Put them in a cardboard box and took them to Jordan's house.

I checked them Saturday. They made their own queen and are up and running. I love letting the bees do their thing.

Viewer mail: Whiskey bees

Chris W in Eastern Oregon writes:

I have been on the swarm list for my area and have had about 10 different calls to come and remove these scarry bees. Most turned out to be yellow jackets and wasps... not interested in them buggers.

I have been reading your site for a few days and you have done what I was looking for. Let the bees bee. I don't need no stinking chemicals near what my family (bees included) may eat. No thanks, have you read some of the stuff they put in there.

Anyhow my reason for writing was I thought you might enjoy one of my hive removal stories. I was called to save a swarm in down town Hermiston. My dad and I arrived to find "The Swarm" was inside of an old whiskey barrel. So dad and I picked it up and took it to my yard. We were trying to figure out how to get the bees out and put them in a Lang. One day I went to check on them, and before I got to the barrel I noticed something not right. I looked over and saw a swarm cluster under one of my trees. Came right from the barrel and hung out.

A couple days later dad brought a new saw with him that just viberates, and has a very small kerf. I cut all around that barrel in about 5 minutes. This is what we saw.

As of today they are doing great in their new home.

Thanks for all your work...

—Chris

4-H Bee Club takes on a hive rescue

The 4-H hive rescue team: Randy, Susan, Lucia, Lily.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

I’ve been working with the Rancho Palos Verdes 4-H club for about a year now, and I’m always on the look out for Bee Rescue Hotline calls in that area.

One came up that was very near the 4-H meeting place, and it was a cutout. The hive had been there a while—Randy did the investigation work and saw that it was a good-sized hive that would be perfect for one of the empty 4-H hives. Randy really wanted the project for the young ladies to go well, so he went the day before and opened up the wall of the shed where the bees were so that that there'd be easy access. He noticed during that initial work that the bees seemed very defensive, but we gave them the benefit of the doubt.

We planned to meet early the next morning with Lily and her sister Lucia. They’ve been doing beekeeping for about 1 or 2 years now by observing inspections. Randy and Susan led them because I needed to leave for a class. Lily was a little nervous as we got everything set up, but Lucia was so very excited that she kept getting closer and closer to the bees. Lily decided to bow out and watch with her dad and the homeowner from the screen door.

I helped get things going but really hadn’t planned on staying. However, with the first comb removal the bees went into high alert and defense mode. I tried to help out, but could hardly see at one point because there were so many bees in my face. I didn’t really have the right pants on and was stung through them at least 100 times. Ouch!!

Lucia loved it, though, and stayed right in the middle of the action. She got a thrill out of the cutout and I got a few texts afterwards about how much she enjoyed it. Her father said they found hundreds of stingers in her suit and shoes. She didn’t get a single sting. We were all very impressed by her calm and collected enthusiasm. She’s a born bee rescuer.

Bees on the wall: get back in your box!

I checked out the situation the following night and found that most of the bees were on the wall instead of in their new box. Ughh!! Well, I suited up and scooped them up and put them in the box and moved the box so it was touching the wall. I got a bunch more stings but it did the trick because by the next night they were all tucked inside.

Randy picked them up and brought them to a big open area; their behavior wouldn’t be a good fit in a urban backyard. And they just weren’t going to work for the 4-H club. It was a great experience, though, and we’ll find another one soon I bet.

Congratulations to Lucia and Lily on their first cutout adventure and thanks to Randy and Susan for the mentoring.

—Roberta

New beekeeper, big bee rescue

Laura and Susan, with some serious treasure.

New Backwards Beekeeper Phoenix writes:

Summer and Kirk Anderson are my Sunday mentors at Los Feliz and that's where I first saw a bee hive. I got the bee fever and wanted a hive. The attached photos are from a Manhattan Beach cutout. This was my first cutout and I am very grateful to Susan R. and Laura B. for their help. It was a learning experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The hive was located in Manhattan Beach, California and it hung right over the driveway as you can see. The homeowner wanted the hive removed. We went to the location three days in order to complete the entire cutout process.

Day 1: We went to inspect the hive and assess on how we can remove the hive safely without too much disturbance to bees and environment since this is a residential area. We looked at the various branches attached to the hive and the type of equipment needed to lower it down. We needed a tall ladder to get to the hive, a shear to trim the branches, a trash can to store the hive overnight for the bees to return, a fence to secure the hive, and ropes to tie it. Sugar water to spray on the bees and a smoker to calm the bees down. Rubber bands to secure the combs to the frames.

Susan sprays some sugar water on the hive.

Day 2: Laura and Susan cut the branches, lowered the hive and secure it with a rope to a nearby tree. We let the hive hung over the trash bin overnight so all the bees can return to the hive before we remove it from the premise. It is important to note that the hive should not touch the bottom of the trash bin, otherwise, the wax combs would be damaged. Laura and Susan also brought a bamboo fence to surround the trash can with the hive overnight, this is to keep out curious eyes and hands.

Uri's first solo bee rescue

Uri and Laura.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Uri writes:

I just completed my first independent bee rescue on Monday. I should start by saying that I attended my first Backwards Beekeepers meeting about a year ago and have been keeping bees for almost a year now, and helped Roberta with a bee rescue in Long Beach last summer. So, it's been a lot of learning but I finally felt ready to do it on my own.

This particular colony had taken up residence under a Tuff Shed in Laura’s Costa Mesa backyard.

Laura’s yard was a wonderful place to work. She is a teacher at a Waldorf school and the yard reflected that. There was an array of fruit trees, an organic garden, and a tree house (Laura said her fruit production had increased dramatically since the bees took up residence). Also, she makes hand-crafted beeswax candles and she gave me one in appreciation for rescuing her bees! Thank you Laura.

The bees had to be removed because one of Laura’s sons got stung and found out he was very allergic. I was happy that she decided to have her bees rescued instead of destroyed.

The bees had dug an entrance through the dirt under the metal base of the shed. The only way to relocate them was to cut out part of the floor inside the shed and remove the bees from there.

I smoked the bees a bit while preparing my equipment. I then sawed a rectangle through the 1-inch wood flooring and removed that panel which had much comb (and bees!) hanging from it. They were quite a friendly colony and didn’t give any problems whatsoever.

A bee rescue and new beekeepers in Long Beach

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

I met Terry and Lee at the last Backwards Beekeepers meeting at the Atwater Connection. I found out that they live in Long Beach (as do I) and had a feral hive in their shed that needed rescuing. They had been contemplating this for a while, so when I said that I could come out with [fellow Backwards Beekeeper] Barbara that weekend they got ready right away. They bought their hive equipment, smoker and some gloves the next day. Lee made their outfits and with a few adjustments were bee-tight.

I knew right away which was the right house because they were the only house with flowers and fruit trees everywhere while everyone else had just lawn. Lee had fresh-squeezed juice for us, to make sure we all got off to a good start.

We moved the bees without much mess and excitement to their deep box and left them in the same area. I had spent alot of time explaining how upset bees can be when doing a cutout, yet none of them even tried to sting us. In a week or so we'll move them up to the roof at nighttime when they are all in the hive.

Success! Barbara, Lee and Terry

The second box has some honey-filled comb for the bees to redistribute and we'll take that off before moving them. We also positioned a ratchet strap so that there will be less hassle on the night of the big move to the roof. They had a fair amount of nectar collected and the comb looked beautiful. Lee and I spoke the next day and she said by nighttime all of the bees were in the box and seemed to be very content with their new location by the next morning.

Lee wouldn't let us leave without some fresh fruit smoothies to go which were super yummy. They are both so excited and can't wait to show other people how it's done. I'm very happy for their bees because they are going to have a great home.

—roberta

A newbee's first rescue

Feral bees love to take up residence in buried meter boxes. The Bee Rescue Hotline gets hundreds of calls about them every year.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Ruth writes:

Brad had been given a deep box of bees and comb last year but they absconded after the huge windstorm we had on December 1st. He decided it was time to get in on the action and get his next hive himself!

We laid everything out so we could see what we had and how his old comb looked. We had tons of space; there was practically nobody in the parking lot of Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook State Park. His kids had painted his hive boxes for him.

The meter box had about 8 very nice, flat combs in it, that detached intact. Super easy! Lots of brood and honey, too. We even found some eggs.

But did they want to leave that meter box? No they did not.

Your Bee Rescue Hotline at work: Silver Lake

Ray and Sally in Silver Lake called the Bee Rescue Hotline about a hive of bees in one of their backyard trees. The bees had only swarmed there 4 or 5 days ago, but they had already drawn three small combs, started collecting honey, and had a decent amount of new brood going. Impressive!

I'm not good at identifying trees, but this one has the kind of fast-growing branches that feel like they can snap off without too much effort. And despite not being superstitious, I wasn't all that excited about being up on a ladder on Friday the 13th. But that's bee fever for you.

Barbara & Roberta rescue bees in Long Beach

LA Backwards Beekeepers Barbara and Roberta have been doing fantastic work lately—not just rescuing bees, but documenting the process to help others learn from their experience.

Barbara writes:

Warren had contacted us about some north Long Beach bees in need of rescue. Josie had watched a swarm descend upon her lemon tree about 4 months prior and that was about the time she noticed bees flying around in her carport. She has a pretty strong allergy to honey—one day too many of putting honey in her tea gives her a pretty nasty rash—so it was important to remove the bees.

Carport wall before demolition...

Once Roberta and I arrived, it was clear that it would be easier to access the hive from next-door neighbor Monica’s backyard than from Josie’s storage-filled carport. Fortunately we had permission from them both to tear down whatever was necessary to get to the bees.

We took turns pulling down fence boards then took a crowbar to the back wall of the old carport. There they were: lots of bees, living on what seemed to me to be some pretty old comb. I doubt the hive arrived 4 months prior. I’m guessing what Josie saw was a swarm leaving, not arriving.

...and after.

Roberta had thought we would finish in an hour but unfortunately I can rarely keep up with her (who can?), so it took 2 hours. By the time we finished scraping off as much wax as we could, ants had already started moving in to clean up the remaining honey.

I did mention to Josie that since she loves her honey, she should start buying untreated raw honey from a local beekeeper; that the pollen in it might get her over her allergy.

—Barbara

Here are some more great video clips of the process:

Long Beach kids help rescue bees

Bee rescuers Barbara and Richard.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

We did a rescue of a hive attached to the eave of Tom's garage in Long Beach. His grandchildren had noticed them and were eager to have them relocated to that they could play around in the backyard barefoot again.

As with the dresser bees, Richard and Barbara did all the work while I explained what we were doing to the kids as they watched through a window.

Kids love bees!

Two bee rescues become one hive

These are some top-drawer bees.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Now that I’m in Long Beach, I’ve found a new team for bee rescues that includes Barbara and Richard. Barbara has wanted to work with bees for a long time now and has a new top bar hive ordered and ready to arrive this week. After a month of the two of us doing bee adventures together we found Richard. He had helped his grandfather with hives when he was very young and remembering those experiences sparked a new desire to have his own hives.

The first rescue the three of us took on were bees in a dresser. The homeowner’s’ son called the Bee Rescue Hotline and described a beehive in a mattress that had been left outside. As usual, what we found was different than reported. The mattress was propped up against an empty dresser that contained a hive.

There was a good level of activity so we started to remove the drawers to see how many were occupied by bees.  Even though this was his first experience with bee rescues in a very long time, Richard took the initiative and did a lot of it on his own.

Richard dives in.

It was a mess getting the drawers out, but once the dresser was open it wasn’t too hard to get the comb tied into the frames and the honey put away.  We left the box and frames in place and came back about a week later to find some bees but not a lot of activity so probably the majority of the bees had swarmed off after having their home torn apart.  

Luckily we had another call from a woman with bees in her jacuzzi. Her daughter-in-law noticed them when she was in the water and saw a few bees. She investigated the slightly open door to the motor where she saw the bees coming from and a glob of bees dropped to the ground. She stayed calm, and the bees didn’t seem to mind the disturbance. The family called the hotline, and we went out to do the rescue.

Rescuing bees from a Long Beach wood pile

The bee rescue crew.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Brian called the Bee Rescue Hotline when he realized that there were bees in his woodpile. He had a group of people coming over to build a bunch of skate ramps and he needed to be able to move the wood around.

Barbara and I came over and Theresa met us for her first bee rescue and first hive. Theresa's son just got a new job and spent the money buying her the hive and a couple of bee suits. What a great son! Brian borrowed one to help with the rescue and loved it. He described it as dangerous and put it in the same category as skydiving. He and Theresa were naturals with the bees and were so excited. Barbara is beginning to be the mentor at this point.

We had to do some heavy lifting at first and somehow Brian conveniently had to go to the store when we needed to that. The bees were very nice and in no time we had them in Theresa's hive.

Theresa came back at night to retrieve them but accidentally went to the wrong house and was confused when she didn't see the hive in the backyard. Luckily no one noticed.

Saving bees in a BIG old avocado tree

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

This hive came crashing to the ground unexpectedly. The avocado tree it was in is thought to be the second oldest avocado tree in Southern California and has being doing great for years. One day this Pasadena family heard a loud crashing sound as one of the tree limbs broke and hit the ground. Luckily no one was hurt.

A hive must have set up in the hollow of the dead tree limb. The colony didn't seem to be fazed by the change in location and continued to fly in and out of the limb. It shocked the homeowner to find a beehive in addition to a 20 foot branch on the ground. Luckily they knew about us. And their son, Rory, knew one of our own beekeepers, Julia.

We arranged a time that Julia and her mother could meet Ceebs and me to relocate the hive to Julia's nuc. Julia is working with bees and creating her senior project around them. Rory was interested In working with the bees so he also joined in with a loaner veil. His mom, dad and sister looked on from a distance and were very excited about the whole process.

We first took a chainsaw and opened up the branch and then Julia cut out the comb. It was tiny bunch of bees and they were super nice. They just kept on flying in and out despite the noise of the chainsaw.

Hive removal in Venice

Roberta opens up the garage wall.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Roberta and I went to help Clancy and Charlotte in Venice. They had bees in the back of the garage. They wanted to keep them but the hive was in the neighbor’s yard and she didn’t like them. Clancy and Charlotte decided that they wanted to move the bees into their backyard.

We took apart the back wall of the garage first. Once we pried the wall open, there was a lot of comb hanging down. We removed it all and then filled up the space and sealed it up.

However, this particular hive (which had swarmed twice) was queenless so we could not move them into the backyard. Instead, they got moved into Backwards Beekeeper Ceebs’ hive.

We promised Clancy and Charlotte some more bees and they finally got a hive from a Cheviot Hills removal.

—Yvonne

Heater hive in Cheviot Hills

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Andrew from Cheviot Hills called the Bee Rescue Hotline when he tried to move an outdoor propane heater, only to discover some bees had taken up residence under the cover.

Hmmm....

Wow!

Thankfully, my nephew Joshua came to help me because when we unzipped the cover, it ended up being a pretty large hive.

Joshua smoked them up really well and then we laid the heater on its side to begin cutting them into frames. Joshua has never handled bees before but laid everything out like a pro.

It was a messy job and it took over an hour but they were framed up and moved to their new hive in Venice, California.

—Yvonne

Backwards Beekeepers to the rescue at the LA Zoo

Now that's a big hive.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Ceebs answered a call to the Bee Rescue Hotline about some hives at the LA Zoo. Dave, who is in charge of the grounds, wanted to do some natural extractions rather than use exterminators. Ceebs did some recognizance and started the wheels rolling.

The zoo rescue crew.

We had a huge group of people go there to remove a VERY big hive (as big as me!). It was under an elevated platform for an old aviary that was set to be demolished the following week, so we were in a time crunch. Luckily we had a team of both pros and newbees willing to meet at 6am to take care of it. We had Kirk, Randy, Chris, Ceebs, myself, Chandra, Barbara, Ryan and James.

Kirk at work.

We started out by just trying to figure out what to do. It took a ladder and a set of containers lifted with a pulley system. There was a bunch of chaos after the first few cuts and then Kirk went in and just took it apart in big whacks.

In no time the comb had come down, the brood was tied in and the honeycomb stashed away. Chandra, one of the condor keepers, took the bees home for her first hive.

On another recent visit Randy, Joseph, Ed, Andrew, James, Margarita and Barbara tackled a few hives. Two were under trailers and were pretty big and old. Access was difficult because it required lying on the ground. These cutouts went pretty fast. Then there was a hive in a tree that required a chainsaw but was too deep to extract so will require another trip for a trap-out.

—roberta

Backwards Beekeeper Ed adds:

Here's a joke for you. An Irishman, a Croatian, and a Guatemalan meet at the zoo and...

Joseph, Ed, Andrew.

Oh wait a minute, it's not a joke, its actually the Backwards Beekeepers International Section. Andrew, Joseph and I had the pleasure of doing a great cutout this AM at the Condor Sanctuary. It was a very mature hive located underneath a trailer. I'd say it was a couple of years old.

We did not use a bee vac. All we did was smoke and cut. We spotted the queen and manually placed her in Joseph's supers, collected plenty of honey and were headed for home by 9:30 AM. I don't believe anyone was stung even a single time.

I will post the photos (courtesy of Margarita) on the LA BeeRescue site.

—Ed