Problem with honey bees

[Lady D]

LadyD, I would do what NoHall suggested. Call a local beekeeper to see if they can move the hive to one of their soupers. Here is a link to the TN Beekeeper Association... http://www.tnbeekeepers.org/

And while you are at it see if they have any natural raw honey for sale, much better than the stuff in the stores...

My mother in law had a hive of bees around her chimney. They got into her upstairs bedroom on the front of the house and there are so many dead bees up there, it's pitiful. But the hive was really on the outside of the house. We have had a honey bee or two drinking out of our bird bath. I put a rock in there for them to sit on and drink water.

I saw one in it the other day. I watched the last time they were getting water from our bird bath and they were carrying it up to a tall tree by our driveway.

 

[Matt J]

I asked a friend of mine tonight, he suggested the following (and I'm dead serious so was he).

Strobe light - messes with bees navigation systems and throws them off.
Disco ball - same theory.

Of course both of these have the potential to kill the bees as they can't find their way back to the hive.

 

[Teresa Cline]

Had a swarm removed from my Mothers house from inside, it really was amazing how they had created a hive in between the rafters, had to remove the sheet rock in the ceiling and the bee guy vacuumed them out....the bees might be in a hive in your house and you dont know it...YET!

here is his tele number,

Chet Beyer 850-748-2938
his business is name is "I Bee da Man"

good luck!

 

[Smiling JOe]

Sounds like the same problem I have always had with squirrels eating my birdfood. I finally gave in and just feed the squirrels instead of the birds, and all is good.

As for the bees, I'd take honey bees nesting in my house any day, rather than yellow jackets. I once had a yellow jacket hive in my house, right beside the front door.

Suggestion, plant more flowers, which will attract honey bees, in your yard. If they have enough nectar, maybe they won't go for the simple syrup.

 

[TooFarTampa]

I guess I'm the only one who is happy to hear that at least some of the honeybees are alive and well. There've been many stories in the press that our honeybees are disappearing--not good news for our food production.

Give the bee-people a call; I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help.

Shel,

I agree with you -- I don't personally see a problem with bees on a hummingbird feeder for a few days -- but there's more to it than that. A swarm of bees near your house means you have to be vigilant about where they are coming from. If they are in a tree and they are docile, then yay! If they are in your walls, something has to be done.

Our hive got so big because I waited a very long time while trying to see if we could get the bees taken away instead of killed. There was only one local beekeeper who would do it -- and he kept putting me off. Later I learned that the professional beekeepers, at least in this state, have been asked to NOT remove bees from the wild because many wild hives have become partly Africanized. This was true in our case. They were very docile for the first year, and this spring they were much more aggressive. I have three kids and was not willing to let them hang out there forever.

I waited until late May (after spring was over so all their good work was done) and had them exterminated. From the photos you can see that it was time.

 

[Smiling JOe]

wouldn't it be cool (if it wasn't your own house) to have the interior wall to be plexiglass, with the bees on the other side, and a tap to extract the honey, directly into your cup of tea? Watching the bees work would be fascinating.

 

[TooFarTampa]

wouldn't it be cool (if it wasn't your own house) to have the interior wall to be plexiglass, with the bees on the other side, and a tap to extract the honey, directly into your cup of tea? Watching the bees work would be fascinating.

Yes! One of the reason I was waiting for the beekeeper was because I really, really wanted to see him remove the hive intact.

 

[Smiling JOe]

We have at least one local bee-keeper harvesting honey in the forest of Pt Washington, but I don't know if they are interested in removing hives from houses, if that becomes an issue in SoWal. I do know that the Barrett honey is simply divine!

 

[Lady D]

They would swarm me if they were Africanized bees. I've been around the feeders when they were on them and even took them down with bees on them and they have not bothered me. Just flew off. And when I gently bumped the bottom of each feeder to make them scatter they just flew off but didn't come after me.

My husband says the birds are getting a quick drink off of the feeders and then flying back off to their perches, because the bees get near them. They really don't appear to be vicious.

 

[NoHall]

Exterminators around here will not have anything to do with them. It is illegal to kill them, for one thing. The exterminator who originally talked to my friend said that the other problem is that if you kill a swarm of bees in the house, it will smell like a dead cat--there are a LOT of bees in a hive! (If you don't get them out, besides the gooey mess of honey, you will have honey-loving rodents in the house, too.)