Our scouthouse is a rather historical looking building: 3 stories high,
shingled with lots of holes drilled by woodpeckers.

For as long as people can remember, there have always been bees in the
walls. This year the building is scheduled for some major rennovation and I
have volunteered to remove the 11 colonies (yes - 11!) inhabiting the wall.

The bees are thriving this year. I opened up one of the wall colonies
today, it measured 16" wide and 56" long.  Dark comb and lots of honey.

I have a question regarding the longevity of chemicals used to destroy
bees. Apparently several years ago, a chemical (perhaps Sevan?) was used to
destroy the 3 colonies in the North-facing wall.. Since I am removing the
colonies I have noted a lot of honey but wonder if there would be residue
from the chemical used to destroy a previous colony.

Due to this history of chemical use to control  these colonies and possible
honey contamination, I have decided that this honey is NOT fit for human
consumption.  I am going the throw the combs and honey into the garbage.
Seems such a was

OR could I feed the honey back to the bees to stimulate wax production  and
draw comb?

Thanks for any input.





Paul Cronshaw, D.C.
Hobbyist Beekeeper
Santa Barbara, CA  USA

This material is presented for private discussion, research and
educational purposes only. Do not publish, broadcast or otherwise
distribute this material without prior written authority.