hippy chick Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 I was pegging washing out this morning and heard a very loud buzz coming from one of my compost bins. My OH lifted the lid off and there were loads of honey bees. looks like about 4"deep of them. No one around me keeps bees so they must be wild ones. My main problem is the chickens they are housed right next to them and i'm scared they will get stung. One of the chucks keeps guarding the entrance to the compost bin. and as they emerge she is catching them and eating them. I have locked them in the run away from them but the swarm seems to be getting bigger what can i do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippy chick Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 I have contacted a bee keeper and he is coming out with a box to try and capture the bees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 I have contacted a bee keeper and he is coming out with a box to try and capture the bees. Let us know how you get on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Yes do,please. I wouldn't worry about the chooks ....they will happily eat the bees. I would worry about the bees Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippy chick Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Well the bee keeper has been and set up a temporary hive. He swept most of them into the new hive and left it positioned it on top of my compost bin. He is planning on coming back tomorrow to collect them. I have just been out and checked on them, and they have all gone back into the compost bin!! I have to admit i was amazed when he took the lid off my bin, he says there are over 20 thousand bees. He showed me the honeycomb which they have built its awesome. I wish i knew something about them i'd love to keep them! They are truly amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Hippy Chick, you need my top bar hive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 he says there are over 20 thousand bees. He showed me the honeycomb which they have built its awesome Wow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Exciting stuff! - let us know how it goes....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippy chick Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Well i still have the bees. They still will not go into the hive though!!! The bee keeper is coming out again today. He says that he will bring a honey comb with him to tempt them into the hive. I would love to be able to keep them, but i'm not sure if the neighbours would be so happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippy chick Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Well the Bee Keeper has been and collected my bees I had gotten used to the idea of keeping them, but i guess a promise is a promise. He put a comb with some honey in the spare hive and they were that hungry that a lot of them went straight in. He found the queen and put her into the honeycomb. Then he scooped the others up and tipped them into the hive. It seemed to take ages for him to get them all in. They were very calm and seemed quite content once in the box. Then again they did have three days without honey, so they must have been pretty hungry. He put the lid on And was grinning from ear to ear as he carried them out of my garden. I did feel pretty gutted giving them to him, I had already given him a tenner and half a dozen eggs because he did say he would like a donation for coming out to deal with them. . I didn't realise exactly how expensive they were to buy! If i had have been prepared before they arrived then i would have been able to keep them. At least now i know what bee keeping is all about and i am definitely going to have some of my own one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 To be honest, a tenner is a lot less than you'd pay a pest control person to remove them, and you did want the compost heap back, didn't you! Although it might seem that he's got a colony of bees for free, he's not likely to get any honey off them this year and they'll need feeding, so you can't really compare it with the price that you'd pay for a nucleus. It sounds as if you're hooked, though - bees are fabulous and fascinating, why not get in touch with your local group and go to some meetings, and then by next year you'll be ready to take some on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenanne Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 It does sound like you have the bee keeping bug now! Sign up for a beginners course through your local association for next winter....Or see if you can track down the same guy who collected them and speak to him about it first. It's a tricky one re: swarm catching /payment. A lot of the time people end up getting called out for wasps, bumbles, mason bees, bees in cavity walls, etc.....A pest controller would charge you far more and likely have destroyed the bees anyway. And to be honest, swarms aren't always seen as being as "good" as nucs : they come from completely unknown stock (are they healthy? are they aggressive? age of queen? are they productive? are they calm? - all are unknown). And by their nature they are more likely to be "swarmy" bees - i.e. ones that have a higher tendency to swarm. Also, the timing is unpredictable - easy to take advance orders for nucs but impossible for swarms. Well, more of a guess anyway. A nuc of bees is likely to be FAR mnore expensive than a swarm. Many beeks don't much like swarms due to the risk of passing disease onto their own bees, and don't like to pass them on to beginners until they know that they are healthy and not overly aggressive. Hence they are a mixed blessing for more established beeks. £10 is likely enough to cover petrol but not his time, etc. BUT having said all of that I can see how irritating it would be to feel like you've paid someone to take something of value away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippy chick Posted June 10, 2010 Author Share Posted June 10, 2010 Well since you put it that way i totally agree with you about the 10 quid being rather a small amount to give the beek. After all he did spend ages talking to us about the bees. And he has given me such a valuable insight into the life of a bee keeper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
