Impromptu Cutout
Barrel of bees with the evaporative cooler resting on top of it.
This morning, I was all set to go move a 55-gallon drum of bees. Just that. The home-owner is interested in keeping them and transferring them to a proper hive but at the moment we needed to get them away from her house until she can acquire some basic beekeeping equipment. Easy as peas, right? Besides, the colony was only a few weeks old and the comb would be rather soft – it’d be nice for it to mature a little before handling it. So, what was that saying about best made plans?
I got a call a couple weeks ago about a swarm that had parked themselves on a 55-gallon drum. When I arrived, tho, most of the bees appeared to be gone. Little did I know, they weren’t actually gone. The drum was being utilized as a stand to hold up an evaporative cooler for a greenhouse. I went out there later to take another peek at the hive as the bees were not all leaving – and with a swarm usually they all vacate pretty quickly. What I saw was bees regularly coming and going to the little cluster on the side, and it sounded louder than it looked – there were more bees there than were visible. Based on that we determined that this was not a swarm that moved on to a new home, but a swarm that moved in to a new home – the barrel.
The entrance is a bullet-hole covered up by these bees.
That would have been fine to the homeowner who was very happy about her bees, except for one thing. She frequently caters to guests and parties and the bees are in a spot that could lead to an unfortunate incident. If it were just her, she’d likely leave the bees there. But with guests, the risk of trouble was too great. The barrel was pretty exposed and easy to get to, and if the bees were swarming on the day of a party chances are good that it would probably lead to less than gratuitous attitudes from the visitors. So, they had to be moved. But, the home-owner is intensely interested in beekeeping – she didn’t want them removed. But she wouldn’t be ready to actually acquire the equipment until after a pressing engagement so we decided that we’d move the barrel further from the house and then cut them out later at our convenience.
Where the combs once hung - almost as clean as if they'd been cut out.
It was a nice cool morning. No hurry – I enjoy some nice home-roasted coffee and relax in the morning. After all, I’m just moving a barrel of bees. How hard can that be? The morning was very pleasant and it was nice soaking in the view of my freshly planted vineyard near the house and the beehives up at the back of our property and all the green thanks to Spring. Sunday is made for that kind of thing, after all. Of course, one can only relax so much – it’s time to get off my keister and get to work.
What does one need to move a barrel of bees? Well, a bee-suit. And that’s pretty much it. The home-owner wanted to help, since she’s an aspiring beekeeper, so I brought my spare veil and gloves. I figured it would take an hour at most, including time to chat and watch the bees flying around. Of course, the hardest part would be removing the evaporative cooler from the top of the barrel, but then after that, how hard could it be? That’s a question I’d regret asking.
After arriving to the property, we do another survey to figure things out. There was a wooden fence immediately behind the barrel that’ll have to be removed and some minor disassembly in the greenhouse to get the evaporative cooler out. Since we had to move the hive about 200′ or so and the property was pretty smooth we decided to put the barrel on a garden-cart and pull it over to the new location carefully. I wasn’t too worried about the comb because it was fairly cool that morning and because we would be going slow and careful.
The garden cart with the scrap comb - honey and pollen.
Getting the land-owner suited up was an interesting endeavor. I brought a spare veil and gloves. She provided a light coat and two pairs of cover-alls. Putting that all together reminded me of getting the kids ready to go play in the snow – and she looked like she’d be comfortable playing in the snow. Which meant, uncomfortable now that there is no snow and it was rather warm. So we didn’t waste any time. After helping her tie up the veil and making sure there were no gaps, we got busy right away.
Moving the evaporative cooler was easier than I thought it would be. It felt heavy when I shifted it, but once we both lifted it, the weight wasn’t that bad at all. She had pulled a truck up to the fence and we put the evaporative cooler on the tail-gate and she pulled the truck away so we’d have room to get the barrel out. The bees were actually pretty tolerant at that point. They did get a bit curious when we lifted the barrel. It turns out that the bottom of the barrel was likely the top and was is completely open. The entrance the bees were using was a bullet-hole in the side, but now they suddenly had a very big entrance and made good use of it. Still, they were more curious than agitated and we were able to place the barrel on the cart without any trouble. This was turning out to be a pretty easy move after all.
The new bee-hive, closed up and ready for a rock to keep the lid down on windy days.
We got the cart pulled about half-way to the new location when the home-owner got a bee in her bonnet. Somehow the bee found her way in – perhaps when the home-owner was looking down at the bees coming out from the bottom of the barrel the veil and hat separated briefly. Hard to say. But, while she was distraught, she handled it pretty well. She was really nervous when it was time to actually work with the bees but she was determined and now she tolerated the bee without too much fuss. It was a bit disconcerting but often bees within the veil are often more focused on a way out. So we left the barrel and walked a bit away from the bulk of the bees and I worked on coaxing the wayward bee out of her bonnet. It took a few minutes but eventually, the bee was released and I double-checked the integrity of the veil to make sure no more would get back in.
Their entrance with bees coming and going.
Of course, all of this meant leaving the barrel sitting in the sun for a few minutes. We got back to it and started pulling it again and the home-owner noted a whoosh of bees coming out the bottom of her barrel. We didn’t give it much thought tho – in cutouts I frequently get that and we were moving their home. When the cart was positioned and I was preparing to move the barrel, it became apparent that the whoosh of bees was from another cause altogether. As I lifted the barrel – which I noticed seemed pretty light – I uncovered a stack of combs sitting on the grate of the cart. The heat of the sun was just enough to soften the comb beyond it’s breaking point and it all fell onto the cart.
The bees really chewed up the scrap comb when they were retrieving their honey.
I carefully put the barrel back over the comb so it wouldn’t be exposed and went to retrieve a hive-body. It looks like our cutout was going to occur today after all. When I returned with a hive-body and some gear the land-owner suited back up and we got busy. I was hoping against hope that the queen didn’t get buried in the comb. Usually when the colony is stressed like this the queen will be herded into a safe corner and surrounded by a cluster so it’s possible that she was still clinging to the top of the barrel. I quickly put rubber-bands on my frames and got things prepped then removed the barrel and set it aside. The combs were amazingly large for their young age – this ranch property has some excellent forage and this was a robust colony. I sized and cut comb and placed it in the frames, placing the rubber-bands over the combs to secure them and plopped them into the hive-body. Nearly all of them had a cap of honey and I trimmed that off and set that to the side – I was more interested in rescuing the brood and the bees can rob that honey and put it back in the hive once things settle down.
The bees had accumulated a tremendous amount of pollen, indicative of a heavy buildup. I hope they continue that in their new home.
With the exception of trimmings, we got all of the brood-comb tied up and in frames. I then set about getting the bees in there. Most of them were up in the barrel so I placed an empty hive-body on top of the bee-hive to act as a funnel, misted a cluster of bees on the outside of the drum with water, and then lifted and after the home-owner brushed the bees off the outside of the barrel into the hive I shook the drum sharply over the hive to dislodge the cluster within. A lot of bees fell down onto the frames and quickly crawled down onto the combs. I let the bees re-cluster and repeated, slamming the barrel down on top of the hive-body to jar the rest of them into the hive. Then I set the barrel down and put a cover over the hive and retreated to the porch to wait for the bees to figure things out. I expected to find another cluster or two as the flying bees coalesced on their old home and wanted to give them a chance to settle down so I could get as many as possible.
Stragglers clinging to the outside of the barrel. The barrel is close to the hive and they'll make their way to their new home soon.
After a bit I returned to the hive to inspect it. The bees were busy robbing out the comb, even removing some of the new comb itself, and I didn’t see any significant cluster within the barrel. I removed the cover and noted that the bees had retreated down onto the frames so I removed the empty hive-body and put the cover down on the bee-hive itself. It appeared for the moment that we were done. However I surveyed the old location and noted a large cluster of bees hanging from part of the fence that didn’t get removed – the foragers returning from the field and the bees that had been robbing out the honey, no doubt. I grabbed a bucket and after misting the bees swept the cluster off into the bucket. It was the size of a decent little swarm. This I carried over to the bee-hive and dumped on top of the frames. Using my fingers, I gently broke the cluster up, herding the bees a bit, and as they de-clustered they retreated down onto the frames. I got another bucket of bees – smaller this time, and poured those on the landing board and watched as they started crawling into the hive. With that, I closed everything up – this cutout was finished.
Whether we retrieved the queen or she survived the fall of the combs we don’t know. There were lotsa eggs in the comb tho so I’m hopeful the bees will make a new queen if the old one turns up missing. I expect the foragers to be confused and will likely fly to the old location first before circling and then flying to the new location. They’ll do that for a while but as a new generation of forager hatch out things will start to normalize. The hive is in the shade of a tree currently. I was going to put the steel barrel there because, ironically, I didn’t want the top to get too hot in the sun and cause comb to drop. However, shady locations are not ideal for bees in the long-term. Small hive beetles thrive in shady, moist locations. So next weekend or the one after we’ll shift the hive another 25′ or so to get it out from under the canopy of the tree and into what hopefully will become a happy bee-yard.
