I am wondering if anyone knows how to remove bees from a garage? I know, it's tough. We had a bee guy out and it seemed too much trouble for him and have not heard back. No takers to remove them, so I guess we have to try something. The bees are honey bees (so the guy said) and they are in-between walls in the garage. They swarm horribly in the summer, so I'm afraid the kids will get stung getting out a bike or something. We apparently have a LOT of bees, so before we tear the walls apart and roof and where ever else they have gotten.. does anyone have a suggestion? (I like the bees for pollination, but need them further away from our garage) Thanks for any information! ~ Brenda

-- Brenda (brenclark@alltel.net), April 13, 2001

Answers

Try looking on beesourse.com they have plans for a bee vac that might come in handy. One of these days i want to make myself one, but havent had the time yet. Your best bet is to do it before they build up to to big so the sooner the better, the longer you wait the more bees you will have to deal with. and once you do get them out get all the comb out also then seal it up good. If they have lived there once you could get them there agian. Let us know how it goes. It can be messy and a lot of work. Dont like messing with bees in walls and such

-- MikeinKS (mhonk@oz-online.net), April 13, 2001.

Look in the yellow pages under 'pest removal'. I don't know if they would "bomb" the place or not - don't know what they would do. But, they might have some help for you if you don't want them to come out and do the job.

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 13, 2001.

I haven't tried this YET, but I'm going to some day! Make sure they are really HONEY bees, and not German hornets, etc. If you can, get a hive body from a beekeeper with some frames of drawn comb and, if possible, some brood. The weather must be warm so the brood doesn't get chilled and die. The article I read said to make a long "funnel" out of screening and staple the wide end over the hole where the bees go in and out, and have the small end (just large enough for a bee to crawl out of) by the hive body. Make sure all other holes in the walls of the building are plugged up - it's best to do this at night wearing a bee veil and long sleeves, just in case. In the morning when the field bees come out, they'll travel down the "funnel", but won't be able to go back up, and they'll hopefully go to the drawn comb and brood (sealed-up baby bees), and raise their own queen. I've read many times that bees will never abandon brood. This set-up needs to stay in place for about a month to ensure that all the bees in the walls have hatched and traveled down the "funnel". The queen in the walls will die off from lack of food, and ideally all the bees will have made the hive body their new home. After about a month, at night again, close up the entrance to the hive body, make sure there are no cracks that bees can escape from, and move the hive body to wherever you want it. (After moving the bees, open the entrance again for them.) You should move it at least 1/2 mile or more away, or else the field bees will keep coming back to the old location because that's where their "home" was. Seal up the walls of the building. I'm surprised that the "bee guy" wouldn't take those bees - every "bee person" I know would love a free hive of bees! If I lived closer, I'd take them. My daughter & I have some land with a very old (unlived-in) house on it where feral bees have been living in the walls for about 10 years. They have holes in the outside trim, but we don't care. They don't disturb us, and we don't disturb them. Someday I WILL get them out and board up the trim, but the location is 60 miles from where I live now, and I just haven't had the time yet. Bees are WONDERFUL - if you ever run across books by Richard Taylor, it might interest you to read them. He treats his bees with so much love - it's inspirational. That's how I want to treat my bees. Hope something like this works, if you have the patience. Good luck!

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), April 13, 2001.

Thank you so much for the information and ideas!! I will try them and see what we can do to remove them first. This is a wonderful place to ask perplexing questions. Have a great day! ~ Brenda ~

-- Brenda (brenclark@alltel.net), April 13, 2001.

It is illegal in most states to destroy honey bee colonies and a reputable pest control company will not do it. Contact your State Department of Agriculture Apiarist and have him help you find a local beekeeper who will be willing to work with you to remove the bees. There are beekeepers everywhere. If you lived close to me, I'd jump at the chance to get such a strong colony. A starter package of bees costs me around $45. It sounds like you have a lot more than that. You probably have a lot of usable honey in those walls too. Where do you live?

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), April 13, 2001.

Bonnie is right, with a couple of added suggestions. put a weak hive, or frames of brood with worker eggs less than 3 days old,or brood with a queen cell. enough worker bees are needed to support brood. only young worker bees can produce royal jelly needed to produce a new queen. without a queen in your trap hive, a worker will start laying drone eggs, not worth anything. the bees coming out the cone will forage, when returning, the small hole on the end is too hard for them to find. so into the close trap hive with their nector or pollen. the best you can hope to do with an establisted hive in a wall, is capture bees leaving the hive. a healthy queen will keep laying eggs, the honey will be used up slowly. good luck ! larry

-- larry in OK (Nuts4bees@aol.com), April 14, 2001.

I dont know about every beekeeper wanting free bees. I've seen the beekeeper i used to work for, turn down many times the chance to get bees out of a building. His time needed to be spent elswere and it was cheaper to either split a hive, or start a package. Some of the folks that talked to him seemed to think they were doing him such a favor. that he need to repair the damage it would of took to get them out. which in a couple cases would of cost a hole lot more then a 3# package of bees would. I was going to get some bees out of a building for a friend of mine. I would of had to tear out the inside wall and i wasnt sure that was where they were. They came in at the crack where a big brick piller and a wall come together. and i couldnt hear anything by putting my ear to the wall... of course that dont mean they wernt there. the walls were lath and plaster so they were thick enough i might not be able to hear them.. that brings in the next problem, have you ever ripped out lath and plaster? I have and its not fun. well i decided to wait till spring to go after them, less bees. but they died out that winter. If you only do it as a hobby it might be different.you might have more time I only have 2 hive that i just started this year. Lost both my hives this winter. and depending on the two things below i might be stupid :>) enough to try to help someone out. 1) It all depends on where the bees made there home. 2) what the owner wants out of the deal.

-- MikeinKS (mhonk@oz-online.net), April 14, 2001.

we keep bees and the answer Bonnie gave you is great. the only thing i would change is that when you do go to move the bee's a 1/2 mile isn't enough. bee's regularly fly further than that. we move our bee's at least 5 miles away when we want to change their location. we wanted to move some from our back pasture to behind a building near our house and moved them 5 miles away to a friends house for a week before moving them back to the house. the book she recommends is great too.

-- Mary R. (cntryfolk@ime.net), April 18, 2001.