Tag Archives: Bee Rescue

Water Meter Hive Rescue

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Our local bee group got another contact about a person with bees living in their water meter housing.  In Florida they are a plastic box set into the ground with a removable lid for servicing the meter and valves.  This one had apparently been occupied for a while.

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We were fighting dwindling daylight and some tricky comb.  It was quite tall and oddly shaped because of the shape of the water meter box and the piping inside.  We didn’t have time to cut the comb to size and fit it inside the frames so we just stuck it in between open frames.

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Everything fit inside a single medium super nicely, minus the bits of random comb on top.  I need to come up with a technique for quickly cutting and framing the comb.  Ideas are forming and updates should be coming soon.  This one went to my bee buddy that still doesn’t have a running hive.  So far they are making themselves at home.

Double Owl Box Rescue

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I have been without bees for a few weeks now since the death of Ester II.  I was sad, but my mourning is over.  I was able to do a double rescue with my best bee buddy Willow.  We had reports of two owl boxes occupied by bees that needed to come down.  Both were in really rotten shape and not long for this world.

The first is this guy only about 8 feet up in a tree.  It must be reasonably full of bees, because it weighed a ton and they had started building comb under the roof entrance.

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I pulled the comb off, duct taped shut the 40 odd holes and cracks that they were coming in and out of, then pried it off the tree.  We took it home, screwed it to an inner cover, and drilled a hole in the bottom of both.  Hey presto, couldn’t be easier!

I shot a little video right after we got them in place, then again a day later.  I think they are here to stay for the long haul.

With my new hive secure, it was time to pop over and take a look at the next one.  First though, we had to visit some new baby chickens!

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Ok, on to hive number 2.  This one was a bit higher up in the tree.  What do they say, don’t look down?

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This one felt really light and was very rotten.  We got it home and instead of drilling a hole we just pulled the bottom clean off.  We found a small hive, with not much comb.  They must have moved in recently.

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Once again the duct tape came to the rescue.  We didn’t think screwing it down would work well.  Doesn’t that look pretty!?  Time will tell if they stay or not.

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