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  • Cut outs from buildings

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #5200  by Patrick
 17 Nov 2019, 10:04
Due to a slight administrative hitch, I hadnt received the last few months BBKA news. This has now been remedied and I was interested to see an article in the October issue on feral colony cut outs from buildings.

It’s not a subject I am very enthusiastic about as it can be fraught with complication and unintended consequences but I thought it was a very good article generally. My reservations were the example illustrated was a flat roof with scaffolding - a perhaps unusually benign example of the genre, references made to cutting structural timbers and the statement “...you must step in to rescue a bee colony” if a building is being demolished or reroofed.

I am not sure I agree with the latter point at all. Along with much other good advice, the author very sensibly says never to work from a ladder but the reality is most roof removals will be on pitched roofs at height. The “method” quoted requires 3 or 4 beekeepers. Hmm.

I would advise caution in getting involved in a building undergoing demolition - they are often inherently unstable and cutting away timbers to improve access “don’t worry- it’s all coming down anyway..” is just asking for trouble.

So no, personally I don’t think hobby beekeepers have any duty whatsoever to “rescue” colonies from buildings especially at height or from within built structures.

Any other views or am I being a snowflake?? :D
 #5201  by Alfred
 17 Nov 2019, 10:26
Nope
I think you're spot on Patrick.
I did one late summer and thinking back I could have got myself into a universe of trouble for a handful of bees that 'thankfully' just had chronic wax moth but no other affliction.

Liability and safety wise I'm lucky to be still able to read this.So much could have gone wrong.

As long as the bees aren't within conflicting distance of the human it's far better to persuade the homeowner to let them bee.
The BbKa swarm list is often used as a free alternative to an expensive Pest Control call out.
I'd advise them of all the follow up problems that removal could bring and persuade them to back off.
I'd still attend the site and try to ambassador the situation but would think very very carefully about attempting another cutout
 #5206  by MickBBKA
 19 Nov 2019, 02:26
Patrick wrote:
17 Nov 2019, 10:04
Any other views or am I being a snowflake?? :D
Errrr, in this neck of the woods...…………..LOL :D
 #5210  by Chris Bowyer
 19 Nov 2019, 16:51
Hi Guys,
I also had a report in the Nov 2019 issue of the B.B.K.A. Monthly. A CUT ABOVE THE REST. I'm a Bee Keeper /Pest Controller/Ex Builder. I have successfully removed several colonies the past 3 years from Chimneys, Flat Roofs, under tiles of a Church Roof, trees and cavities to name just a few. I have a Flir thermal Imaging Camera which is an essensial piece of kit to locate the colony. I work alone most of the time but have had a fellow bee keeper to assist ocassionally. Unless you have your own insurance for Pest Control & or Builders Insurance please don't attempt to do cut outs. There are so many things that can go wrong. I now cover the whole of the U.K and all the jobs i have done have been completed in one day with an after dusk finish.
Also due to Google I get calls from all over the U.K for Swarms ! If they are outside of Cheshire, i'll do a quick swarm collectors search and pass the details of their local swarm collector on to the caller.
I have a facebook page where I like to upload footage which is - https://www.facebook.com/Honey-Bee-Removal-Relocation-UK-156066391617063/
If anyone would like any advice or to tag along to a job please send a message to my facebook page.
If anyone has a colony or needs advice you can also give me a call on 07598 447351
I now have over 40 colonies and can't wait for Spring !!
 #5212  by Patrick
 19 Nov 2019, 17:49
Mick - I can’t believe I left you such an open goal..😂😂!!

Chris hi - I too was a builder many years ago. This presumably is a professional service you offer then?

I am cautious about messing with other people’s properties partly because of the people who live in them. They sometimes have a magic ability to make what was originally their problem suddenly your problem. I can muster enough of those already 🙄.
 #5224  by MickBBKA
 22 Nov 2019, 22:59
Patrick wrote:
19 Nov 2019, 17:49
Mick - I can’t believe I left you such an open goal..😂😂!!

Chris hi - I too was a builder many years ago. This presumably is a professional service you offer then?

I am cautious about messing with other people’s properties partly because of the people who live in them. They sometimes have a magic ability to make what was originally their problem suddenly your problem. I can muster enough of those already 🙄.
LOL... 4 members of Cleveland BKA rescued a colony just last week from a building. Believe it or not they were on about 5 combs on the exterior of a NHS building exposed to the elements. This was about 4 meters off the ground. A scaffolding firm erected mobile scaffold and our members climbed it and transferred the combs into a nuc, which so far is doing ok.

I can definitely say those bees were not snowflakes but ard as northern bees !

Cheers, Mick.
 #5225  by Patrick
 23 Nov 2019, 08:21
Nuff respect to the bees!

With scaffolding in place and the combs on the exterior I would have cheerfully had a go too. Sadly I have yet to see a colony with significant drawn combs outside. Around here they seem to prefer chimneys.

You sure they weren’t Apis dorsata? Might have popped over to see the historic clock tower in Redcar.. :)
 #5234  by AndrewLD
 24 Nov 2019, 11:04
Sound advice already in these replies but perhaps for those who didn't read the full article and/or don't read the small print. Your BBKA insurance that comes with membership does not cover you for this........