Help! bee city in exterior wall

[Big Lou]

Honey bees have been migrating in spring to one particular section of our exterior wall for years. Most of us know wild honey bees are decreasing in numbers so we continued to allow the use of our wall as a refuge. With time, the bee population is too large and prevents any activity near them.

Have any of you such experience? What did you do? We have been told that wall area must be opened so a beekeeper can remove the bees and comb or sadly exterminators can do their job. Told it is very important to remove all comb, wastes, etc. to protect the house.

All comments truly appreciated.

 

[Kansas Terri]

Where I live, a beekeeper would take the bees that are in the wall and the honey as well. Then, he would spray with insecticide so that the bees that are out foraging will not return: the smell of the insecticide would keep them away. Hive-less bees will usually go to another hive and try to convince the other hive to allow them in, and often the other hive will allow them to enter. A lone, healthy worker bee with a load of nectar is an asset to a hive! They are not always allowed in, but they often are.

Sometimes a beekeeper will charge for the services and sometimes they do not. Some beekeepers think that having bees to take home with them is enough pay, but some beekeepers have enough bees already and simply do not want any more. It does take a few hours of work to remove the bees, and the beekeeper will expect some benefit, whether it is in the form of bees, money, or both! However, the customs of my area might be different from the customs in yours!

Where I live, the fire department keeps a list of beekeepers who are willing to come out and collect bees. A phone call to ask about rates will be simple enough, and I think if I were in your shoes I would ask. Phone calls only take a few minutes, and if you decide to go with an exterminator instead then you will only have lost a few minutes of your time.

That is what I would do, but I have to confess that I am biased! I lost my own hive to a bee illness, and I would really like to get back into beekeeping. I burned the hive that the sick bees had lived in, to prevent the illness from spreading, but I do have a spare hive. If I lived in your area I would come and get yours, but I will probably have to end up buying bees instead! I might buy more next spring.

 

[Big Lou]

Thank you.

 

[passingcat]

We have such a shortage of bees worldwide. I really worry about them because we would suffer mass world food shortages if they all get killed off. This is excellent advice Kansas. It is wonderful that people will come and collect the bees to relocate them!

 

[Kansas Terri]

Actually, it is an old wives tale that we would suffer massive hunger if the honey bees all died. The most important plants, like grain and grass, are all wind pollinated. And, there are other native insects that would pollinate many of the garden plants like melons and cucumbers and such.

What we WOULD lose if the honey bees became extinct are the big orchards and great fields of vegetables: one native pollinator can only visit so many flowers in a day, and so the farmers have made a habit of hiring in hives during the time that the crops are in bloom. In this case, fruit and vegetable production would be most successful in little garden sized patches, and the stores would no longer sell carrots for 50 cents a pound. The backyard gardener would still see a yield, as a native pollinator could easily visit several blossoms a day, and that is usually enough for a small vegetable garden.

On the GOOD side, as the bees die out in one area the bees from outside of that area move in, and gradually disease resistance is being bred into the bees. Over the last 20 years or so resistance to the varroa mite has shown up and it USED to have a very high mortality rate. I believe that with continued care by farmers and backyard beekeepers within another 20-odd years there will be resistance to CCD (Colony collapse disorder) as well. We simply have to nursemaid the hives along until there are enough bees out there with resistant genes to make a difference!

 

[ChanellG]

Grain and grass are hardly the most important plants, especially considering how many people have gluten issues.

Bees often come back, but poison is not the answer. Sealing cracks and making it difficult for them to get into walls in the first place as well as offering them alternatives for building a hive are. See if you can't give them a better option nearby that will also allow you to have some honey.

 

[TheCrazyPlantLady]

Actually, it is an old wives tale that we would suffer massive hunger if the honey bees all died. The most important plants, like grain and grass, are all wind pollinated. And, there are other native insects that would pollinate many of the garden plants like melons and cucumbers and such.

What we WOULD lose if the honey bees became extinct are the big orchards and great fields of vegetables: one native pollinator can only visit so many flowers in a day, and so the farmers have made a habit of hiring in hives during the time that the crops are in bloom. In this case, fruit and vegetable production would be most successful in little garden sized patches, and the stores would no longer sell carrots for 50 cents a pound. The backyard gardener would still see a yield, as a native pollinator could easily visit several blossoms a day, and that is usually enough for a small vegetable garden.

On the GOOD side, as the bees die out in one area the bees from outside of that area move in, and gradually disease resistance is being bred into the bees. Over the last 20 years or so resistance to the varroa mite has shown up and it USED to have a very high mortality rate. I believe that with continued care by farmers and backyard beekeepers within another 20-odd years there will be resistance to CCD (Colony collapse disorder) as well. We simply have to nursemaid the hives along until there are enough bees out there with resistant genes to make a difference!

Wow, Kansas Terri, you really know your bees! I'd really like to have a hive, and hopefully, when we get our dream home one day, we'll have the space to add one. It's a pity though, I hate honey!

I was thinking of getting some carpenter bee hives to put up in the woods behind our house next year, in order to increase the population near my garden

 

[ChanellG]

I was thinking of getting some carpenter bee hives to put up in the woods behind our house next year, in order to increase the population near my garden

If you're going to keep bees, why not honeybees? At least you get the honey as an added benefit. In any case you might want to reconsider carpenter bees. There is another thread here started by someone with an infestation. If you don't want the challenge of honeybees maybe mason bees would be a better fit.