Greetings
 
Bees enjoy settling in compost bings - I have removed at least ten
swarms from such bins, in various stages of development.
 
You have a young swarm. This is then simple and straight forward.
 
Compost bins have lots of nice holes in to aid aeration - with time
the bees will clog these up and you could get a lot of good quality
propolis (at least 2kg's - I got a bag of 'aloe' propolis that way
recently). Now they have probably not had the time, so make a little
fire (smokey) next to the composter, or if one has access to a smoker
smoke them liberally. Remove the combs for whatever use you will put
them to. Take the whole composter and walk a few steps from the
original site. Lift it up and drop it - this will dump the bees on
the ground. Do so again, so as not to squash any bees. Remove the
composter if all bees are removed (well if there are less than a
hundred inside don't worry).
 
PLace a box in the middle of all the bees on the ground, proppoing it
up with four blocks of wood, with the bottom upwards - in no time the
bees will run inside. They will do this better if one times it to
happen at about 12.00 pm when the sun is overhead. The later in the
day the less cooperative they are.
 
Hope this helps.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
 
PS - one I did a removal like this and found a small embalmed
mongoose inside the compost bin - I gather it had crawled in there in
winter and been 'terminated'. The bees covered it completely with
propolis.
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)