Musical Bees

While perusing Craigslist one day last week, we ran across an interesting posting that stated "Bees in a speaker in a barn", and they wanted someone to come rescue them instead of exterminating them.  This was too interesting not to call and check on!  After an email exchange, I called the phone number, and sure enough, the lady said she had a colony of bees in a outbuilding, and they were living in an old home stereo speaker box.  They were located just off of Route #4, about 15 minutes from home.  So, off I go with bee suit in hand, to see for myself.  Upon arrival, they showed me the building, and I could see a flurry of bee activity going in and out the door.  This was a good colony, and they were working hard for the queen!

I checked out the situation, and decided I would return around dusk, when the foragers had returned to the hive, and remove the colony of bees.  I fabricated a cardboard box to transport them, returned about 8:30 p.m., and gently lifted this HEAVY speaker and bee colony and carried them out of the barn.  I placed them in the box I whipped up, and transported them to our bee yard.  Once there, I placed them on the hive stand, gave them a pint of sugar syrup feed, and left them for the night. 

Here is the transportation box:

I placed a jar feeder over the ventilation screen on top of the box.  It was going to be warm in that box, until I could release them the next day, so I wanted them to have a drink!

I retrieved the bees on Wednesday, August 3rd, and we removed the speaker from the box on Thusday, August 4th.  This will be an easy date to remember..........as it was Angie's Birthday!  One of her presents..............new bees, of course!  :-)

A shot taken a few minutes after I removed the speaker from the cardboard box.  LOT'S of bee activity!

  They were using several holes on the speaker cone for a hive entrance, as well as a round hole on the side of the box.

Angie is pulling a loose flap of fabric from the speaker cone, to have a better look inside.  We hoped to see how the comb is built inside the box, but there are just too many bees in there!

 A closer shot at the activity on the speaker cone.  All in all, this colony was rather well behaved, considering all the have went thru with the relocation process.  We'll see what sort of mood they are in on Saturday.  That's when we open the speaker box, and remove the colony and place them in a hive body.  That should be interesting!

More photo's to come, documenting the removal of the comb and bees from the speaker box, and getting them established in a normal hive body.  This could be fun!