In a message dated 5/22/99 11:53:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> I once got bees out of a wooden
>  hive that was in a terrible state by inverting it and drumming on the
>  side to drive them into a clean hive placed above.
>  Beats should be slow and rhythmic, not a fast drumroll.
>  Why it works  I don't know, and the fact that they leave the brood may
>  be something to do with the belief (how true I don't know) that a queen
>  wont lay in cells that are upside down.

    That's a double whammy.  I have gotten bees out of old hives, with cross
comb, etc by turning the box upside down and putting a good one over it. The
queen seems to move up readily, within a few days.

    Drumming also works. And it works whether or not the box is inverted, or
whether there is brood. We drum bees for packages. It doesn't make them near
as snotty as shaking frames. Just a steady thumping with a rubber mallet,
doesn't have to be hard, just steady; and the bees will abandon any box, or
hollow log.  I don't seen how you could drum a skep, because it is not solid.

[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
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