Hey everyone, I trust you are having an incredible holiday? Festive season or not bees need rescuing, they call and we 'come a runnin' because if we don't sadly they get exterminated, this evening was no different.
Upon arrival at the premises this what what greeted us.
A client in need of a bee removal urgently called us up and needed this done ASAP as these bees were getting more aggressive and stinging the tenants!
As usual we gladly jumped at this opportunity to go and save some more bees. Our first 'wall rescue' an interesting one indeed!
We had to get these guys out of the wall and access to the combs was vital. Luckily before accepting the quest of saving bees I generally ask clients to send me pics of their location and to give me a vague run down, tonight was no different. Prepared we were, arriving here with a hammer to knock some holes in the wall to access the bees which is exactly what we did.
Those holes we knocked in the wall and gently extracted the bees and combs after smoking them a little. That black substance in the holes is called propolis. This is a product bees make from wax nectar and saliva which is used as an anti bacterial inside their hives. Propolis makes for a great cosmetic additive for anything from toothpaste to skin care products.
More about this fantastic bee made produce here as per wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propolis
Sadly this swarm was not very strong and is often the case with weak swarms infested with wax moth. We had two options destroy all the bees and combs as not so infect our other swarms, or get really resourceful. I WILL NEVER DESTROY BEES, there is always another option and I just had to think fast as to what that would be and so I did.
I had to burn all their combs as they were unusable and totally infected with wax moth larvae and moths. Putting them back in with these bees would have resulted in certain disaster.
I opened another of my weaker swarms and doused them with baby powder (true story) I then added these bees to that swarm and doused them with baby powder too. The theory is that bees do not recognize each other in terms of sight and smell recognition, by the time the baby powder wears off they are all acclimatized and carry on regardless and guess what? It WORKED A DREAM. Happy days, two weak swarms combined to one stronger, more productive swarm.
Another successful rescue, re-hive and relocation, we now have 30 hives and swarms in a short 5 months, amazing right?
Be sure to stay tuned for more of me epic bee-keeping adventures!
Happy Holidays.
Cheer$;)