Hi Glen and All
 
In my part of the world we have many bees and a little hive beetle
that is a bee pest.
 
If one removes a colony there are two strategies, one, you can aim to
get the bees only, or two you can take the bees and their combs.
 
In the light of the apparent arival of the small hive beetle in the
US and the possibility that European honey bees are not able to
defend themselves well against these bugs, it is in my opinion best
to take as much of the comb as possible out so that these little
critters don't use any of the pollen and such left behind to
multiply.
 
Basically, smoke the bees to a mild buzzing roar, then use an
electric drill to drill around a few brick - if the drill bit coms
out wet the hive or a water pipe are behind that spot. If no water
runs out the hole then the hive is there and one can drill the rest
of the brick out.
 
One then needs to remove the brick below as well and then can usually
manouver things from there. Remove combs and do whatever with them.
If you have another hive from which to donate brood to this hive it
is better to do that and feed the wild brood to chickens. Not only
does placing wild combs in frames usually result in sloppy combs, it
also could transfer bugs you don't want into your hive.
 
Next, take a break after taping a cardboard slat over the hole in the
wall. Come back later on or even better the next day at about 12.00
 
Scoop as many bees as possible and dump them in a box. let them
recluster and scoop again. Then pump lots of smoke in to make the
rest fly out and they will often join the ones in the box on the
ground if you were lucky enough to get the queen into the box.
 
If you are good at finding queen, find her to see if she is in the
box. Otherwise just take the bees and dump them into  another brood
box and amalgamate them with another colony by the newspaper method
(put a sheet of newspaper over an established hives broodnest then
place these characters on top and put lid on - they chew through and
meet new workforce).
 
It is not often worth being sentimental about a wild queen as she is
often not worth the time it takes for her to burn out and swarm on
you.
 
Hope that helps
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P
the I. may not stand for important.
(rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)