Re Tom Allen's problem with bees invading his workshop..
Although I have not had the same problem as Tom has, once a year I need to
remove live bees from my "honey house." .When we built our home ten years
ago, I planned for the screen porch to also be a honey extracting room (see
my aticle in Bee Culture/Gleanings of several years back entitled from
Screen Porch to Extracting Room). When I bring in the supers there are
invariably several dozen bees clinging to them or inside them. These bees
then cluster at the top of the screen panels as they seek the light and try
to get back to their hives. I place a clean bag in my vacuum cleaner and suck
them all in. Then I take the bag outside and slit it open. The bees are
usually pretty woozy from their high speed trip into the bag but, once they
get their "legs under them" again, usually take off and head for home. I
find that am able to save about two thirds of them this way. The others
usually don't make it, probably because of the trauma of the vacuum trip.
But at least I am able to save some of them.
Faith Andrews [log in to unmask]