>>While I applaud your enthusiasm for helping honeybees it seems to me the "problem" you describe is by perspective.  Perhaps the problem isn't
really the honeybees making a home in the hollow of the tree - but rather the homeowner whom is upset with the honeybees sharing 'his' space.  Attitude is everything.

Attitude on both sides.  We ask our fellow citizens to tolerate our beekeeping in urban/suburban settings.  If we turn a deaf ear to their pleas for removal, sooner or later our fellow citizens will pass unreasonable ordinances banning beekeeping in their communities.  As a minority, the beekeepers will lose.

Just as honey bees, rodents, carpenter ants, snakes, aligators etc. claim space for home and living in our backyards.  However, I do not see many volunteers wanting to live with mice in their homes.

>>Having spent my share of  'enthusiastic' bee-saving effort swinging from ladders into eves of houses or the side of a barn - I can safely say with experience that you're time was better spent calling a local pest agency for easier to remove beehives.

My motives are both self-centered (a few bees and a few $ for my time) and altruistic.  Nothing is more gratifying than the homeowners' kids saying 'this is just like the honeybees we saw on tv!' or 'I want to look inside the bees' nest.'  Or a homeowner saying good-bye and asking 'are you going to give the bees a good home?'

I find homeowners eager to learn about honeybees (and ways to prevent them from reoccupying the same holes).  They come to appreciate the bees and beekeepers more.  They certainly ask a lot of questions and listen about bees with awe and open mounths.  There is little or no antagonism.

>>Despite Varroa there are still lots of hives to 'save' every year.

I do not know how it is in the rest of the country, but I am finding extremely few varroa in my own hives (w/o chemical treatment) as well as in the ferals I've collected.  I am not betting my bottom dollar yet but perhaps the tide is starting to turn.

>>For those that wish to join the effort, free bee plans for a beevac can be found at: http://www.beesource.com/plans/beevac/index.htm

In the removal report at this site, the outside siding was taken down to get to the bees.  I personally prefer to work from the inside (it's easier and cheaper to the homeowner) especially if it's sheetrock.  And I can keep the room closed so I can vacuum up all the bees.  Nevertheles, the colony size in the report is very impressive.

I made my bee vac from a sturdy currogated box attached to an old Eureka vacuum cleaner.  I cut two diagonally opposite holes in the box.  In one, I inserted and tied down with wire the vac cleaner's hose putting an 8-mesh screan over it to prevent bees from getting sucked into the vac cleaner.  In the other hole, I inserted and tied down with wire a 1" dia. stiffer hose (fishpond type available from some Home Depots and water nurseries).  In the box, directly opposite the inlet hose, I taped a 4"x4" piece of soft foam to cushion the bees' injection into the box.

To keep the box from collapsing on itself, I inserted and screwed from the outside two pieces of wood at 90 deg..  All cracks and gaps were sealed with duct type.

This set-up is very light (important whether you are 30-ft up or at ground level) and easy to use.  When the box is full (dramatically decreased suction), I cut the duct tape, open the flaps, and quickly shake the bees into a screened box.  A few bees will take to the air but I will get them on the subsequent try.

Waldemar
Long Island, NY

(Where the major honeyflow is usually over by July 15th.  This year we had a very wet, cold spring into June and the golden rods are just starting to come on - perhaps we'll have a late summer/fall flow.  It would be most welcome. :)

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