# Catching a swarm



## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

I just bought two hives and put a deposit down on two colonies of bees. They should be in in about 2 weeks. I'm super excited. 

A friend who paints has gotten a job painting the inside of a church. A deacon in the church has told him that if he can get the swarm of bees out of the wall he can have them. Of course he called me to see if I want them. And I do! 

Is this too ambitious for someone who is just learning about bees? Would I need a 3rd hive? If it's not something that is way over my head ... how would I go about doing this?


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## goodatit (May 1, 2013)

i'm not trying to discourage you, but i think something like that for a beginner is a little much. keep bees for a season and then see if you want to tackle taking them out of a wall. good luck


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

That is not a beginners level project. 

Have you made any contacts with your local beekeepers club yet? Someone in the club may be willing to help with that.


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## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

The man that used to own this house was head of the local bee club for a long time. I can easily contact someone around here - the man who I'm getting the bee set up from is not interested in the swarm. My buddy just told me that most likely if we send someone else they will want to keep the swarm, but if it's something that's too much for me to do alone I guess there will be other swarms down the road when I know more.  I watched a couple of You Tube videos and it didn't seem too hard but they were catching swarms hanging from trees and not inside walls. I'm not a very good carpenter and I do not desire to become one.


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## Earthling (Mar 6, 2014)

Capturing swarms from walls is not advised. I would leave it to the professionals. There will likely be some structure repair required when the job is finished. 

Capturing swarms sounds like a good way to increase the size of your apiary but very often it doesn't work out. In fact, the chances of success are so low and so much time is involved that swarm capture is simply not worth the effort for those in business to make a profit. There are easier ways to populate the bee yard that are more reliable. Still, there many bee keepers out there more than willing to take on the task. If they employed bean counters in their operation, that particular undertaking would fall by the wayside.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

First off it is a colony of bees that are living in the curch not a swarm. Swarms are bees that have left a hive/colony to increase the bee population.

I have removed bees from walls of barns, sheds and houses. We no longer do houses because there is just to many *UNKNOWENS. *Bees have a funny way of having a entrance then traveling thru studs to finally build comb and set up house keeping, A tall water glass or a stethascope helps pin point just where they are really in the wall.

Have you given thought to just how you are going to get them? Remove inside dry wall and vacum the bees off the comb, cut and tie the comb with brood into frames? Or are you going to set up a trap and do the trap out method?
One has to get their feet wet at some point if that is some thing they want to take up but a church or house isn't what I would recommend getting the feet wet doing.

A typical swarm.



A colony of bees at home in a wall. this colony took 3 of us 6 hours to remove from this wall. 



Comb with brood rubber banded in a frame useing intertube rubber bands.



 Al


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

I have a friend who used to have a business removing bee colonies from inside walls. She and her husband would then set the bees up in a hive on their property and sell the honey.

I would NOT recommend this unless you have insurance and are a licenced contractor.

They used a special vacuum cleaner to collect the bees without killing them, then they tore down whatever they needed to in order to remove all the comb. Once the queen was collected, the rest of the hive tended to follow. According to their contract, the property owner was then responsible for any repairs to the building.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

My bee vac set up. Start with the bottom where the hose hooks up that pulls the bees in. it is a recycled medium honey super with a ramp installed with carpet padding.





The top part is a recycled shallow honey super with window screen stapled on one side. *Do not drill holes in the slide over that screen. C*ut a 1/4 slot about a inch down on the inside and totally cut the wood away in the front.



Cut this slide part so it fits in the slots and drill a hole to fit your shop vac hose for the intake. Cut a second hole (mine is 1 1/2 inch) for the vacuum regulator. Full open less vacuum full closed more vacuum. I use a 20 foot suction hose and have the regulator set about half closed with the 5 HP vac pictured and full closed with the smaller 2 HP vac. they sell adaptors for different hose sizes too.







I made this close off so I can transport the bees to the yard where we are going to keep them away from the other bees till we are sure they are not sick. since I made 3 of these I leave the bees for a week before I remove the vac parts. I do remove the slide and add a regular hive cover when I leave them. Ratchet straps holds the whole contraption together when working and transporting. Also note I added strips of weather stripping foam to the top of the bottom and the bottom of the top so it seals to the hive better.





If you just use the shop vac alone you will end up with a bunch of dead bees.

 Al


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

AL, how do you install the rubber banded frames of brood after vacuuming the bees into the hive body?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Carefully, lift the top once I have them at their perment home, I set the box of brood on top of the hive with the bees makes the second deep in most cases.
Have given thought on doing a slide screen arrangement but so far it has worked fine the way I've been doing it.

 Al


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