>At times can take serious thought before the work begins.

HI Bob,

Tell me about it,,, I once cut a whole section 
of siding and OSB and found the colony
was not where it was "suppose to be".  ;(
I will add here that the homeowner insisted
the bees were in that spot of the wall, and
I took his word for it... Stupid me. 

Now I always look the situation over about
2 of 3 times, and one more time just before 
cutting to be as positive as I can be as to
the location of the colony. 

>Bees are not predictable (which I am sure Joe will agree on). Once the wood was pulled on an eve where the bees were entering and the nest was at the opposite end of the house eve.

Yes, I agree!
I once investigated a bees in a house call,
that I really messed up on.
Here were the symptoms:
* There were bees getting into the house
at lighted points in ceiling lights and window 
frame for several days. 
* Dead bees in the lights and on the floor.
* Bees flying to and from a hole in the 
outside wall for several days, almost a week.
* Bees could be heard in the ceiling,
a type of 'airy buzzing'.

Classic signs of a swarm just moved in right?
Well I cut the outside wall open, and was
a bit horrified by the lack of a colony of bees.
They were ALL house hunting scouts, perhaps
a few hundred.  I made up some kind of 
story that it was a small swarm and I 
chased them off, told them to plug the hole
and also No charge, and got the hell out of there. 
Never seen that many house hunting bees in
a void before this experience. 

So now, I look for pollen being carried in.
And also keep an ear out for that 'airy buzzing'
that house hunting scouts make when investigating
inside a cavity. 

Lessons learned the hard way are lessons
never forgotten.

BesT wishes
Joe Waggle

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