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Archive for April, 2011

Good advice, says Fred Willey, A professional Phoenix Exterminator after he read and viewed the following stories about bee attacks around the Phoenix area.

Five emergency calls in five hours were enough to prompt fire officials here to put out word that bee season has arrived, and that it could be a busy one after a wet winter.

Bees swarm in the spring as groups break away from overcrowded colonies, often setting up hives in places that bring them in contact with people. That’s no small issue with aggressive Africanized honeybees established around Arizona.

This story and the following two stories are typical Calls that our Media has been reporting all year long here in Phoenix, said Fred, and Due to last year’s winter rains there have been a lot of flowers blooming this year from desert areas such as Cave Creek, to downtown Tempe and Mesa, and it’s been a busy season so far, Fred said.  When it rains a lot, there’s more pollen and nectar on the plants and that gives the bees a lot of food, which increases the number of swarms.  Unfortunately because of the bees had such a successful spring, it can be expected that this fall will be even worse as they prepare for winter time and swarm season is upon us again from here on until we reach the colder winter months.

It is so important that people do exactly what the Phoenix Fire department is saying, BEE Careful,  just read these stories, and you will understand why messing with bees is “Not a Do It Yourself Project” you should be attempting.

PHOENIX – An elderly man is in critical condition after being attacked by a swarm of bees Wednesday as he tried to use a vacuum to suck them up.

At about 6 p.m., the Phoenix Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services said they responded to the scene of the attack near 32nd Street and Indian School Road.

Captain Dorian Jackson of the Phoenix Fire Department said the 85-year-old man tried to vacuum the entire hive in a tree outside his home.

Jackson said the victim suffered between 50 and 75 stings on his face alone.

When firefighters and medical personnel arrived at the scene, they tried to walk with the victim to get him away from the bees, but the bees continued to attack for two-city blocks, according to Dorian.

The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Dorian said it’s extremely important that when people come into contact with a hive on their property, they should contact a professional Phoenix Exterminator and not attempt to get rid of the hive themselves.

Firefighters used foam to extinguish the bees.

The attack was the second time Phoenix firefighters responded to a serious bee attack Wednesday.  An 81-year-old woman is also in critical condition after she was attacked by bees near 33rd Avenue and Cactus Road.

In Phoenix — Neighbors say 81-year-old Toni Parker, who was attacked by a swarm of angry bees Wednesday, is doing better and hopes to return home soon.

“She’s doing fine, she’s up and alert,” said Debbie Cameron, who called 911. “She’s got a broken leg close to the hip, and she wants to come home already.”

Cameron says she had just returned home when she got a phone message from Parker.

“She must have left her phone on, because all I could hear was this rustling and I knew something was wrong.”

Soon after, Cameron’s mother came in telling her that Parker was being attacked by bees.

Cameron’s mother, MaryLou Cameron, had rushed over but had been stung nearly 12 times trying to get close enough to help her friend.

“As I got closer, she had the blanket pulled back to see who was coming out and all she kept doing was calling ‘help! help!’ … she uncovered her face and there were bees all over her face,”  said Cameron.

Three police officers and another person were also stung in the attack.

Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Dorian Jackson said Parker was trapped on her back patio at 1 p.m. by the swarm of about 1,000 bees.

The home is near 33rd Avenue and Cactus Road.

In a call to 911, a Cameron told the dispatcher that “[Parker's] fallen and bees are attacking her in a swarm.”

“She couldn’t get away,” Cameron told ABC15. “She must’ve slipped and fell … she broke her leg up near her hip.”

Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Dorian Jackson said Parker was stung 300 times.

Three Phoenix police officers tried to help the woman by spraying the bees with fire extinguishers, but Jackson said that appeared to aggravate the bees further.

He said the officers were stung approximately 50 times each.

They were evaluated by paramedics at the scene and refused treatment, according to Jackson. He said one other person was also stung.

Firefighters closed off the street as they tried to locate the hive. Crews used foam to subdue the bees.

As you can read in these media stories, Africanized honeybees are dangerous to humans and pets because they respond aggressively and in large numbers to perceived threats, a trait that makes them far more dangerous than European honeybees.

The so-called killer bees arrived in southern Arizona in 1993 and since have been found in every county. They are descendants of a variety brought to Brazil from Africa in the 1950s by scientists looking for a better honey producer. The bees bred with the local honeybees and began spreading northward.

Africanized bee attacks can be fatal to people, especially the elderly and those who are allergic to bee stings. Dogs are vulnerable because they often are chained or enclosed by fences and can’t get away.

The bees don’t go out looking for trouble with people, but confrontations often occur when someone inadvertently disturbs a hive or decides to destroy the bees without professional help.

Those who are attacked should run away from the bees or get inside buildings, closing doors behind them. Diving into a pool doesn’t help; the bees will wait for a person to surface, and I always tell people “ They have more air than you do, and you can only hold your breath for so long and they will still be there waiting to sting you.”

The best protection is taking steps to avoid provoking bees, such as staying on hiking trails and not trying to take a closer look at a bee hive. Usually curiosity is the biggest cause of bee attack situations.  Don’t wear floral scented perfumes when hiking, and if you are attacked by bees – don’t panic, cover your face, protect your nose and mouth (bees are attracted to your breath and will usually try an sting you around those areas if possible which will cause your airways to swell shut and limit your ability to continue breathing) and run to a protected area such as inside your home, inside a car.  It’s better to be in the car with a few bees than out of the car with 50000 bees, just be careful to not put others in danger as well, as the bees will go after everyone around you.

Most importantly of all “Don’t wait to take care of a bee hive”  Hire a professional to do this work, as you have read, two individuals were put into almost life threatening situations, and our professional Phoenix firemen came to the rescue at potentially the same risk to themselves.  It is alarming to me, with the amount of risk that bees can be, how many times I have heard, “oh, yea they have been there for quite a while”.  The quicker we respond to a Hive the better, bees get more aggressive when they have a hive to protect, and the larger the hive the more bees there are, of course, however one thing we haven’t mentioned yet, is the honey!  With large hives, there is a lot of honey and potentially more damage to the structure to remove this hive, as well as the fact that any left over honey will attract other pests such as ants, cockroaches, more bees and  even beetles.  Oh and did I mention that if you leave the honey, there is a good chance it will melt, and flood your house with ooehy, gooey, honey, or did I tell you about the time when the honey got rotten and the whole house smelled like rotten “Honey”.  You get the picture.

Bees can pose a fatal threat just with their stings, Hire the premium bee nest removal phoenix service for affordable prices. They are experts in removing almost all kind of killer bees of Arizona.

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Barely the size of an apple seed, the tiny bed bug is creating major headaches for business owners. A nuisance pest that does not transmit disease, the unsavory fact that bed bugs feed on human blood engenders a level of revulsion well out of proportion to their miniscule size. When this parasitic insect infests a retail store or commercial business office, the public stigma associated with bed bugs can cause employees to panic, send customers fleeing, damage the firm’s business reputation and tarnish its corporate brand. That’s a heavy price to pay for a problem over which business owners have no control.

 

Unlike other unsavory pests, a bed bug infestation is not an indication of poor sanitation or lax maintenance. Bed bugs ride into a retail shop or office building hidden on the clothing and in the possessions of customers and employees. “Bedbugs are hitchhikers; they travel with people and with items that travel with people,” National Pest Management Association (NPMA) spokeswoman Missy Henriksen told USA Today in an August 2010 interview. What frustrates business owners is that they are being held accountable and burdened with the cost of getting rid of a problem they did not create.

 

Virtually unheard of in the U.S. a decade ago, bed bug infestations have tripled in the U.S. since 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A major headache for hoteliers since they started returning to the U.S. in the luggage of foreign travelers, bed bugs gradually spread to travelers’ homes and in the past year have been increasingly discovered in commercial buildings. In a 2010 survey conducted by the NPMA and University of Kentucky, 20% of U.S. pest control firms reported treating bed bug infestations in commercial buildings, compared to less than 1% in 2007.

 

As the nation’s busiest international gateway, New York City has suffered early in the national bed bug invasion and has proven to be an indicator of the growing pattern of bed bug infiltration for other cities. In recent months, bed bug infestations have moved beyond hotels and residential buildings and been increasingly reported in NYC retail stores, popular entertainment venues and commercial office buildings. Bed bugs have also hit hotels and motels nationwide, government offices in Washington D.C., Federal offices in Philadelphia and Kentucky, and most recently a well-known high-rise business tower in Chicago.

 

Adept hitchhikers, bed bugs are easily transported between home and work in backpacks, shopping bags, briefcases, purses, gym bags, laptop computer cases and the suitcases of frequent travelers. Customers, employees, vendors, cleaning staff, and maintenance contractors — anyone can bring bed bugs into a place of business. Bed bugs have been found in office furniture and supplies transported in an infested delivery truck. When bed bugs invade, file cabinets, wooden desks, upholstered chairs, cubicle walls, carpeting, employee lockers, padded benches in changing rooms and cluttered bookshelves provide attractive harborage. “They (bed bugs) tend to prefer fabrics and wood, but they can be drawn to warmth and end up almost anywhere,” warned national bed bug expert Michael Potter, a University of Kentucky entomologist, in an August 2010 article posted on Forbes.com.

 

Citing the “alarming resurgence” of bed bug populations in the U.S., the EPA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued a joint statement calling bed bugs a serious public health threat and stating, “Bed bugs cause a variety of negative physical health, mental health and economic consequences.” While nearly half of bed bug victims do not react to their bites, bed bug bites can cause mild to severe allergic reactions and, in rare cases, life-threatening anaphylactic shock. But it is the mental anguish that many bed bug victims experience that most concerns public health officials. Anxiety, insomnia, depression, stress and paranoia are common. “Probably one of the most under-reported issues is the mental anguish that comes with having bedbugs,” Henriksen told USA Today.

 

No business is immune from bed bugs. Some of Manhattan’s elite hotels have been sued in high profile lawsuits from guests claiming to have been bitten by bed bugs. While hotels and apartment buildings still garner the bulk of bed bug lawsuits, recent suits have also targeted dry cleaners, laundries, furniture stores, moving companies, universities and cruise lines. Most businesses prefer to settle bed bug claims out of court to avoid negative publicity and potentially high jury awards. Settlement amounts are generally much less than the jury-awarded sums that capture national headlines. Lawyers note that many bed bug victims expect to be compensated for mental anguish above reimbursement for medical treatment and replacement of infested belongings. “If I’m trying to settle a case, I might be offering $8,000, $10,000, and the person wants millions. They feel violated,” Christian Hardigree, a lawyer and professor of hospitality law at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, told Bloomberg Businessweek in a 2007 article.

 

Bed bug lawsuits started attracting attention in 2003 when a Chicago jury awarded two bed bug victims $382,000 in punitive and compensatory damages for bites suffered at a budget chain motel. The generous verdict unleashed an avalanche of bed bug lawsuits. In 2004, a well known hotelier settled a bed bug suit brought against its posh hotel in New York City for a reported $150,000. In 2007, a Chicago couple filed a $20 million lawsuit against a Catskills resort after the woman had to be hospitalized for a severe allergic reaction to bed bug bites. In 2008 a news channel employee sued the owner and manager of the building that houses the studio where he works for bed bug bites sustained at work. In 2008, a New Jersey couple claiming they had been sold bed bug-infested furniture by a top department store was awarded $49,000. Last March, elderly and disabled residents of two Des Moines apartment buildings filed a class-action suit against building owners and managers over inadequate bed bug control.

 

While lawsuits damage a business’ bottom line, negative publicity can deliver the knock-out punch. Consumer reports of bed bug activity on BedBugRegistry.com, the new bed bug-tracking iPhone app or popular bed bug blogs can scare off potential customers and erode brand value. Unfortunately for business owners, self-reported sites make no effort to verify consumer reports of bed bug activity nor do they update reports when bed bug problems are corrected.

 

There is no magic bullet that will make bed bugs disappear. “The main defense against bed bugs is education and awareness because everybody has a role to play in managing bed bugs, and it’s much easier to manage if you catch it early,” Edwin Rajotte, professor of entomology and IPM coordinator at Penn State University, told Forbes.com in a recent article on the most bed bug-infested cities. Privacy issues prevent questioning employees, visitors and suppliers about personal exposure to bed bugs or performing visual inspections of clothing and belongings, but there are effective, proactive measures business owners can take to reduce the risk of bed bug infestation.

 

Prevention. Scheduling regular facility inspections by a licensed pest control company with demonstrated bed bug expertise ensures early detection of bed bug activity. Early detection can contain bed bug activity to a small area, minimizing disruption to your business and extermination expense. Pest control professionals can also recommend Integrated Pest Management (IPM) procedures that can help keep your business bed bug free. To prevent bed bug transportation between home and work, some companies now provide tight-sealing plastic containers for storage of personal belongings while employees are at work.

Education. Maintaining a bed bug free work environment is a communal effort that requires employee cooperation. Employees should be taught how to identify bed bugs and signs of infestation, where to look for bed bugs, preventative steps they can take to avoid bringing bed bugs to work or taking them home, and what to do if they see or suspect bed bug activity. Licensed pest control professionals may be able to assist with employee training.

Action Plan. A bed bug action plan that clearly spells out the responsibilities of employees and employer should be implemented and communicated to managers and employees. The importance of early detection should be emphasized.

Communication. Employees should be encouraged to report bed bug activity at work or home and be assured that doing so will incur no penalty or jeopardize their employment. Employers should inform employees immediately of any bed bug activity and tell employees what steps are being taken to control the infestation.

Treatment. Bed bug-treatment protocols should be developed and in place to ensure prompt response and treatment by a licensed pest control professional if bed bug activity is detected.

Staff Training by Professionals. ChemTec Pest Control provides comprehensive training for commercial clients in how to prevent and monitor for bed bugs. Many other pest control firms nationwide are following suit; understanding that prevention and careful monitoring will allow for early intervention and treatment mitigating damage to a business’ reputation.

 

Jesse Eaton is a member of the pest professional team at ChemTec Pest Control. This New Jersey based pest control firm serves commercial and residential clients. ChemTec Pest Control is located at 186 Saddle River Road, Saddle Brook, NJ. You can reach the bed bug experts at ChemTec Pest Control at (201) 843-0780 or by email at wecare@chemtecpest.com. Please visit us on the Web at www.ChemTecPest.com (http://www.ChemTecPest.com).
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Basic Wasp Control Tips

Wasps are an incredibly dangerous pest and wasp invasions have become more prevalent.  The lone-star state of Texas has seen a considerable amount of wasp infestations in recent years. Extermination and nest removal is the ultimate end goal, but it helps to practice some basic do-it-yourself wasp prevention techniques.  If something as simple as wearing proper clothing or keeping your garbage sealed can help deter the pests then surely it is worth doing.  Here are some basic Texas Wasp Control tips to help prevent wasps from finding their way into your home:

Remove or seal food sources: Wasps are attracted to protein, which explains their frequent sightings at family cookouts.  Open garbage cans, pet food, or even scraps left on your grill can lure the pests to your lawn.  Grilled meats are tasty, but be vigilant of wasps because they love man meat.  Sweet foods, like rotting fruit, are also calling cards for wasps.  If you have fruit trees on your property, you will need to be extra diligent about cleaning up the fallen produce.
Avoid perfume or scented lotions: Sweetly scented lotions and floral perfumes smell like food to a hungry wasp. Even scented shampoos can bring you their unwanted attention.  These scents are an invitation for wasp trouble.
Avoid bright clothing: Bees and wasps are attracted to vibrant colored or patterned clothing.  Red and yellow would be particularly bad colors to wear at your next neighborhood picnic.

Wasp Removal Tips

If a nearby wasp nest is causing a ruckus for you and your family then some careful do-it-yourself pest removal is in order.  Before making any attempt to remove the wasp nest you need to be certain the wasps inside have been exterminated or securely quarantined.  Wear protective gear like long sleeves, goggles and gloves to protect yourself.  Also read all manufacturer directions that come with the wasp removal product for the best and safest results.

Wasp Aerosols: Insecticide sprays can be effective and easy to use wasp control products. Brand names like Raid and Ortho are readily accessible and have a proven track record. When using these products, completely saturate the nest to ensure complete annihilation and do not stand underneath it while applying the product.
Wasp Foam: For underground wasp nests, insecticidal foam is the best product choice. Wasp foams have a long, thin straw-like attachment that allows you aim the foam into an opening or other hard to reach place.
Organic Wasp Sprays: D-limonene and pyrethrins can also be found in organic wasp removal products.  D-limonene comes from the natural oil of citrus rinds and has a pleasurable orange scent.  Pyrethrins are naturally occurring insecticides derived from chrysanthemums.  

For more information on wasp control or other pest control resources, please visit our Pest Control and Exterminator Site.

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Like many hobbies, beekeeping requires some basic equipment before someone can establish a successful hive. This equipment should be bought before you get a call from the post office asking you to come and pick up the honey bees.  You can buy honey bees and hive together locally from someone in your local association, club or group.  They are also often for sale in bee journals and magazines but get advice from an experienced bee-keeper.

Beware of the reason why the honey bees are being sold.  The first hive and honey bees I bought were being sold because the honey bees were very aggressive/defensive.  The seller was very good; because he told me they were aggressive and he had difficulty handling them.  I got advice from my local bee inspector who said he knew the honey bees and yes they were aggressive/defensive but he felt that they could be calmed with gentle handling, but not the ideal choice for a beginner.  I bought the honey bees, hive and equipment at a knock-down price.  My first experience of opening that hive was a disaster, the veil was weak and when I put it on a hole appeared in the rear which I was unaware of.  The honey bees found it in seconds and started crawl all over the back of my neck.  As calmly as I could I closed the hive and headed away from the hive they had started to sting by this time.  I removed the veil and jogged to the house to get my wife’s assistance.  She scraped nineteen stings out of my neck, head and face, they were very painful.

Within the week I had obtained another veil and an all-in-one white boiler type suit and went back to the honey bees.  Yes they were still very aggressive, or defensive as some prefer to call it, and smothered my gloved hands and left their stingers in the leather but didn’t actually sting me.  The hundreds of honey bees on my hands made handling the frames difficult as I was a novice and very nervous and I think they knew.  It took me nearly eighteen months to calm them down.  I always worked slowly and deliberately with no jerky movements and spoke to them about how good I thought they were.  How effective speaking to them was I am not sure but it helped me and gave me confidence when I told them what I was going to do next.  They were never gentle like the honey bees I have now but at least they stopped smothering me and stinging my gloves.  So my advice is get advice from an experienced beekeeper or an expert.

The most obvious piece of equipment you will need is the actual beehive.  A floor with landing board, brood chamber, queen excluder, super (s), crown board with Porter bee escape and feeding aperture and of course the roof with waterproof covering.

Your beehive should have at least one super but preferably more.  The supers are a very important part of the beehive because they are where the honey bees will be storing their honey. These supers should be between the bottom of the hive i.e., the brood chamber and the hive cover or roof. The supers are very important because they are where the honey bees will be storing their honey for feeding and raising their offspring in the brood chamber below. Once you have an active hive each of these supers will contain nine to twelve frames depending on the type of hive. You can choose if you want a hive with shallow supers or deep supers. The advantage of deep supers is that they enable bee-keepers to buy only one size foundation. The disadvantage is that, when full, a deep super can weigh one hundred pounds or more.

Once you have a hive for your honey bees make sure you place it somewhere that has a flat surface preferably off the ground on a stand so that the hive won’t tip over in a strong wind and the damp won’t seep up from the ground.  Also make sure that you place it somewhere that humans, livestock and pets aren’t likely to disturb it.

Some bee-keepers use spacers others judge the spacing by eye.  A spacer is a piece of equipment bee-keepers use to keep an equal amount of space between the frames while they are in the super.

The next piece of equipment you will need is a smoker. The smoker is what you will use to control the honey bees and move them when you open the hive particularly in preparation for harvesting the honey. The smoker is surprisingly simple in its design. The smoker consists of a funnel, a combustion chamber, and bellows. Many bee-keepers claim that old, clean burlap or Hessian is the best material to use in the smoker because they are easy to ignite and smoulder and smoke well. Other bee-keepers prefer to use dried corn cobs, hay, straw and some use old socks not nylon of course.  Once the fire has been lit in the combustion chamber the bellows will keep it going. The funnel directs the smoke into the hive, encouraging the honey bees to move away.

Another tool you will need is a metal hive tool. The metal hive tool is used to pry open the hive, and separate the hive bodies and frames, and to scrape the frames clean. Think of it as the all purpose tool of beekeeping, it can also be used to remove bee stings by scraping it across the skin.  Never try and remove a sting by pulling it out with your fingers you will just squeeze the poison sac and push more venom in.  By all means use the fingernail to scrape out a sting or your hive tool.

No bee-keeper is ready to receive their shipment of honey bees until they have a bee brush. A bee brush is used to gently brush honey bees out of the way so that the bee-keeper can examine the frames for brood.

When it is time to harvest your honey, you can use a fume board. A fume board is a board that is covered in bee removing chemicals and is then used to encourage the honey bees to leave a super and go down to the brood chamber and let you take their honeycombs by removing the complete super.  You can also use a crown board with a one way Porter bee escape.  Once they have gone through the Porter they can’t get back this can take 24 to 48 hours.

If you don’t mind getting and using used equipment you can find some great bargains on beekeeping equipment on auction sites. There are several catalogues and websites that offer beekeeping equipment, and many of them offer beginners packages.  If you acquire previously owned i.e., second-hand equipment you must ensure they are cleaned and sterilised.  This can be done by washing with washing soda and flaming/scorching with a blow-lamp/torch.

My name is Bob Prior-Sanderson. I am a successful bee-keeper and I publish eBooks about the long lost secrets of beekeeping by the old masters. Website: http://www.firstlessonsinbeekeeping.com
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Knowing honey bees, and having the knowledge for their management, are the two most important factors in making a start in the business of beekeeping. The knowledge should be obtained first or, at least, gaining it should keep pace with any increase in the numbers of honey bees. As in any business, it’s the same with bee-keeping, your need to have a broad and deep knowledge of the subject to succeed in this line of work. So many people fail in different kinds of business because they start it with only a narrow or superficial knowledge of their chosen profession. A very good way to gain the knowledge is working with an experienced and successful bee-keeper. This is one of the quickest ways of learning bee-keeping; and, if the teacher is competent, it can be a very enjoyable experience.

The beginner is not always able to get the best as an instructor, it is therefore, a good idea to supplement such instruction by a course of reading, and thus be able to make comparisons and discuss the instructor’s methods in the light of those procedures used by others. In fact, I am inclined to think that a thorough course of reading is the most desirable first step that can be taken by a prospective bee-keeper. Having done this, the next step is to subscribe to a honey beekeeping magazine. At this stage a season with an expert bee-keeper would be of great value, when the reading will enable the learner to use the information, and see the reason for things instead of being simply an imitator, following blindly in the footsteps of his teacher.

Many people who now keep honey bees never had any formal training. Many have become interested in honey bees from the capture of a stray swarm. Neighbouring bee-keepers would be visited, books or magazines borrowed or bought, improved hives and methods adopted, and, as the honey bees increased, so did the enthusiasm and interest, until, finally, the honey bees received more time and attention than did the regular business. Then bee-keeping eventually become a speciality or the sole business.

When a person has decided to embark on a bee-keeping venture as a business, they should learn the business thoroughly before investing extensively. No hard and fast rules can be laid down, so much depending upon circumstances. A young man with no established business would do well to pass one or two seasons in the company of some experienced bee-keeper, as has been already suggested, while a more experienced person already in business, with a family to support, may find it advisable to move into bee-keeping gradually, reading and studying as his honey bees’ increase. Whatever the method employed, let the work be thorough; and, especially, be sure to get plenty of actual experience before venturing into honey beekeeping as a business.

On occasions, a person already has some honey bees when he decides to become a full-time bee-keeper. Perhaps he never formally makes any such decision. He captures a stray swarm, and saves the honey bees, and the stock increases with such wonderful speed that the owner becomes a bee-keeper of substance and scarcely realizes it. This amazing speed with which honey bees increase is one strong argument in favour of a person securing a few colonies and building them up into an apiary instead of buying a large number of colonies at the beginning. By rearing queens that will supply the newly made colonies with brood, and you furnishing them with full sheets of comb foundation, the amount by which honey bees can  increase in a favourable season is something almost beyond belief. Just how or where the first colonies come from may well be considered.

Sometimes the person who has steady work, and a good income, can buy honey bees and in the hives that they intend to use. If the honey bees and hives can be obtained locally, from a reliable bee-keeper, so much the better. Of course, there are instances in which a person has more time than money, or there may be a trace of the opportunist in their make-up, and, in either case, the hunting of honey bees, or the putting-out of decoy hives to catch stray swarms, will appeal to them. In those parts of the country where many honey bees are kept, as in Colorado or California, there is no difficulty in catching swarms in decoy hives; in fact, there is difficulty in keeping swarms out of chimneys and the walls of buildings. While out riding one day a man in Colorado, pointed out one house where the walls were covered with five colonies.

He used ordinary boxes instead of hives, and put them pretty high up in tall trees, as a good hive, easily accessible, is quite likely to be stolen.  A piece of old black comb is fastened inside the hive or box, and the hive or box is firmly fastened to the tree so that it is not to be easily blown down, a position being chosen where the hive will be in the shade. A tree on the edge of the woods should be chosen, because, when a swarm reaches the woods, it at once begins a search for a suitable hollow in which to make its home. This is sometimes done in advance by worker bees when foraging.  The hives or boxes are examined at least once a week, more often if there is time, and when one is found to be occupied by honey bees the hive or box is removed and another put in its place.

Honey bees are also found by walking through the woods in the swarming season.  After the honey bees have been found, then the next task is getting them out of the tree and into a hive. Sometimes it is possible to shake them from a light branch into a box, if they are located on a large limb, you might need to cut off the portion where they are located, and lower it by means of a rope. Having captured the honey bees they need to be transferred from the box to a hive. Frames with drawn comb should be put in the hive.  A white cloth or canvas should be placed in front of the hive and the honey bees shaken onto it.  Make sure there is a slight incline up to the hive entrance. If the hive is left on the spot for several hours, perhaps until dusk, nearly all of the live honey bees will go into the hive.

As said at the beginning, if a person has and a reasonable income they might find it more satisfactory to buy honey bees in a hive; but if they have the time and inclination to get a start by hunting honey bees, or by putting up decoy hives, then this should help them to do it.

My name is Bob Prior-Sanderson. I am a successful bee-keeper and I publish eBooks about the long lost secrets of beekeeping by the old masters. Website: http://www.firstlessonsinbeekeeping.com
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