Honey Collection

[crashdive123]

I must admit that I laughed rather heartily in the episode of Man vs Wild where he collected honey and got stung. You'd think that if you were allergic, you may stay away. I got a call yesterday afternoon regarding bees. I went and destroyed (most of it anyway) the hive last night. I returned today to remove the comb. This time of the year there is very little honey - and I can't imagine trying to extract the honey without a suit and smoker, as the bees tend to get a bit agressive when they feel threatened. The comb on this hive was about 5 feet tall and about 4 feet wide. I estimated about 20,000 bees were present.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/VancouverDr4515004.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/VancouverDr4515005.jpg

[nell67]

THat was inside the walls of their house?? Wonder why it took so long for them to call:eek:

[crashdive123]

The house had been vacant for quite some time. The investor that called me just closed on it the previous week. Talking to the neighbors (all gathering around to see if the strange man in the bee suit would get stung), they said they had called the city several times over the past year or so. Gotta love government efficiency:mad:

[Ole WV Coot]

Back in my younger and dumber days we would watch bees get water and track them back to the tree and no we didn't follow the little tracks just watched where they flew until we found the tree. We went back after dark, cut the tree, always got stung a few times, got the honey and spent a long time getting dirt & bees out of the honey. Seems the queen lays eggs everywhere and you get them with the honey. Worth it NO. Do it again, NO. We always had a few hives at home but those trees are best left to the bees.

[Dennis K.]

yep - my parents had bees in the walls. Took forever to get rid of them. every time they would light their first fire in the fireplace in the Fall, they would end up w/ honey in the fireplace. smelled great, but no fun to come home to a house full of bees.
The honey was inedible. too many chems from pesticides, walls, mortar & such.
Eventually the hive was wiped out by something called an African Hive Beetle. All was fine - they thought the bees had either been killed or left for more hospitable residence, then one morning, my parents woke up to their living room floor covered in 1000's of dead beetle larvae. The beetles had eaten the hive, laid eggs, eggs hatched & the residual insecticide killed off the larvae, which all chose their final resting place in my parent's living room.

[crashdive123]

It's kind of important to remove the honey and comb from inside the walls. Hive beetles, wax beetles, maggots, ants, rats, and on, and on may take up residence. When I have bees inside a structure, I do not use insecticides on them. I use dish soap and water, dispense it out of a foam machine and it stops them immediately. They eventually smother, but the great thing is that they don't sense a threat as they would with an insecticide, so they do not swarm and attack me (which is a big plus).