Author Topic: Bees in a Martin gourd (Read 17712 times)

Bamabww · « **on:** February 22, 2014, 08:18:18 pm »

Got a call late this afternoon from a guy who has found a "hive" of bees in a gourd. He has a string of 20 gourds almost 20 feet high and was cleaning them out prior to the arrival next month of the Martins. Gourd #12 had bees inside it. He said it was so cold the bees were not active so he didn't get stung. He said he raised the string of gourds back up and began to try and find a beekeeper who might come get them. He had passed my house and seen my hives but didn't know me. He did know my neighbor and called her and she put him in touch with me.

He asked me if I could come by in the morning and get them and I said I would. There won't be much more than a double handful of bees and all kind of problems helping this hive survive but just couldn't turn them down and let them be destroyed. I'll post some pictures later tomorrow if I'm successful.

blueblood · « **Reply #1 on:** February 22, 2014, 08:20:26 pm »

That is cool that he saw your hives and thought to ask about you. I definitely want to see the pics!

iddee · « **Reply #2 on:** February 22, 2014, 08:23:02 pm »

Bees are nice, but just be sure they are "HONEY" bees.

Bamabww · « **Reply #3 on:** February 22, 2014, 09:56:00 pm »

Quote from: iddee on February 22, 2014, 08:23:02 pm

Bees are nice, but just be sure they are "HONEY" bees.

Yeah, exactly. I asked him if he was sure they were honey bees. He said his dad had been a beekeeper and he knew what honey bees looked like. So maybe he knows. I'll see at 6 a.m. in the morning! He called and that's the time he wants me over there.

Perry · « **Reply #4 on:** February 23, 2014, 07:27:31 am »

Good on you for saving them (or at least trying).

Pictures would be cool though.

Bamabww · « **Reply #5 on:** February 24, 2014, 10:30:00 pm »

I have more details about this but will have to post them later.

blueblood · « **Reply #6 on:** February 24, 2014, 10:52:15 pm »

Oh my goodness, that is cool! I wish they all came in packages like that.

G3farms · « **Reply #7 on:** February 24, 2014, 10:59:26 pm »

That is a dandy for sure.

Talk about a hand grenade!

Jen · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2014, 01:13:19 am »

Enjoyed hearing about this adventure

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #9 on:** February 25, 2014, 01:42:14 am »

wow! Big gourd! theres more bees in there than I was expecting. Hope you can salvage them, they appear determined!

Perry · « **Reply #10 on:** February 25, 2014, 06:52:19 am »

I wonder if there is any way of getting them out of there and save the gourd with the comb as a conversation piece?
Maybe keep it in a super with frames of comb, wait till the queen comes out to lay in the frames and then move the gourd into a second box above an excluder?
That is too cool to have to break apart.

Bamabww · « **Reply #11 on:** February 25, 2014, 06:57:05 am »

Here's the background story on the gourd from the guy who called me.
His dad was a beekeeper but passed away almost 2 years ago. He had 8 hives and they went unattended for most of the last 3 or 4 years during his dad's sickness. None of the 4 sons had any interest in beekeeping. His 8 hives were scattered across the farm and the one son who had helped his dad as a youth decided to check on the hives. He found 7 of them had been over run with wax moths and the 8th was very weak but no moths yet. The 8th hive was located in the back yard near his garden spot under an oak tree. Last September he said he saw a swarm of bees had settled on a limb of that oak tree. The next time he looked they were gone and when the checked the hive it was now empty.

The string of gourds is located very near the oak tree where the swarm had settled. He thinks they left the oak tree and took up residence in the gourd when the martins left last mid to early October last year. He said each gourd had matins nesting in them last summer.

He is gathering all of his dad's stuff and asked me if I was interested in any of it. I told him I was and will let you know how that turns out later.

Bamabww · « **Reply #12 on:** February 25, 2014, 07:01:07 am »

Quote from: Perry on February 25, 2014, 06:52:19 am

I wonder if there is any way of getting them out of there and save the gourd with the comb as a conversation piece?
Maybe keep it in a super with frames of comb, wait till the queen comes out to lay in the frames and then move the gourd into a second box above an excluder?
That is too cool to have to break apart.

I agree. I'm going to try and do that very thing. I have them in the deep super with sugar water in a frame feeder. I have them inside my shed / barn where they are somewhat protected from the mid teen temperatures forecast for this week here in Alabama.

Perry · « **Reply #13 on:** February 25, 2014, 07:08:58 am »

Nice pic of the string of gourds.

blueblood · « **Reply #14 on:** February 25, 2014, 09:18:31 am »

Nice score all around Wayne! The son may feel better knowing his father's bees and equipment will live on. Will a dremel tool help cut that open?

apisbees · « **Reply #15 on:** February 25, 2014, 03:30:56 pm »

Nice picts and story.Thanks for posting, keep us informed please. Keep the gourd in the up right position until the weather breaks and you want the queen and bees to come up out of the gourd and start laying brood in the frames.

JPthebeeman · « **Reply #16 on:** February 26, 2014, 12:18:18 am »

I met one of my good friends this exact same way.

He called me 5-6 yrs ago about a swarm in one of his purple Martin gourds & wanted to know how to transfer them into a hive set up

We spoke a few different times & wound up becoming fishing & crabbing buddies

He also helped me secure one of my bee yards in his area

All this started with a swarm in a purple Martin gourd

He still puts his strings of gourds up every season & his yard is also full of bee hives that occasionally throw off swarms that enter you guessed it

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bamabww · « **Reply #17 on:** March 08, 2014, 06:52:56 pm »

The bees still haven't moved out into their "mansion" yet but I can tell they are using up their stores inside the gourd. I have them captive with a screen over the entrance and a screen inner cover over the top. I set a shallow honey super (empty) on top of the screen inner cover and a regular top on the shallow. I have a feeder inside with 1:1 sugar water and a sugar brick on top of the inner cover. I have the gourd situated where I can see inside with a flashlight. The bees are crawling around the drawn comb I have placed inside the deep brood box with the gourd but are not doing much else that I can tell.

Our weather has taken a turn toward spring and i have the hive in the sunshine now outside my barn. The bees come out during the day and climb all over the screen and a few visiting bees crawl over the outside of the screen, no doubt welcoming them to the bee yard. They can't leave the box at all.

I'm thinking of placing a small cloth with Bee Be Gone sprayed on it to see if I can run them out of the gourd. I really want to save that gourd as it is a one of the kind in our area. There may be some eggs / larvae still inside the gourd so I don't really know what to do. I know the nurse bees will stay with their babies.

Open to any suggestions that lend themselves toward saving the gourd and bees intact.

G3farms · « **Reply #18 on:** March 08, 2014, 11:15:43 pm »

time and patience. Might put a couple of drawn frames in the super where the gourd is. Since you are feeding syrup they will soon back fil the brood nest and hopefully push the queen out of the gourd and onto the drawn comb. I would leave the Bee Gone out of the picture. So they are unable to fly outside of the box? they will need to take cleansing flights for sure.

Bamabww · « **Reply #19 on:** April 08, 2014, 06:07:50 pm »

With our second consecutive week of pretty weather, I finally run out of patience with the gourd bees. They had been in the gourd inside a deep hive body for 6 weeks now and still were not coming out to claim their new home. Last Friday I set the two deeps I had the gourd cradled in out in my beeyard. I left them all snug in the gourd but with 3 frames of drawn comb and one half frame of honey and stores. Had to leave early Saturday morning before daylight and didn't return until Sunday afternoon. When I walked to the hive, I noticed the bees coming and going out the reduced entrance so I felt like everything was going OK.

It rained on and off all day Monday so this morning was the first time to check them since last Friday. There was lots of pollen being brought in but when I opened the hive, almost all of it was being carried back into the gourd instead of the drawn comb I provided. There were some bees working the comb but the majority was being used to resupply the gourd.

I took my smoker and gently puffed the gourd for almost an hour on and off. There were lots of bees inside the gourd and slowly they came out and flew off, some crawled into the hive body and some flew up and around the hive. Every 5 minutes or so I'd smoke the gourd again and another group would slowly exit and do the same as the earlier ones. I noticed that several of the bees were turned facing the entrance and fanning, so I thought they were trying to tell their flying friends to come on back, her majesty was in the house. I couldn't see her and looked and looked again through the frames but never found her. But I've had that problem before so I wasn't really worried that I had missed her exit or that she was already in the hive on the drawn comb when I started the smoking.

I watched and finally no more bees were coming out of the gourd. I couldn't see any in there either and shook it to see if I could maybe shake the stragglers out. Nothing came out of even buzzed so I thought the gourd was finally empty. I sat the gourd down on the ground and turned back to the frames to see if I could catch a glimpse of the queen and her entourage. No sight of her at all. I decided to shut the hive up and check later in the afternoon. I picked the gourd up and on the backside was the queen and 6 or 7 attendants!

She had been the last one to leave. I opened the hive back up, placed the gourd on the top of the frames and rotated in around where the group was next to the frame. Instead of crawling off they started crawling around the gourd and stopped on the top side. I rotated them around again and looked carefully at the queen, fearing I might have hurt her with the shaking I had done. I couldn't see ant broken legs or wings and she was walking as good as the others around her. When I got them next to the frames I brushed the whole group off on to the top of the frames. It caused her attendants to split up and she was left alone. She stood still for just a few moments and then crawled over the side down onto the drawn comb where she disappeared in the midst of the other bees.

I have a queen excluder in place above the bottom board and under the deep hive body so she can't leave. I'll give them a day to calm down and check again maybe Thursday. By Friday I hope she has accepted her new home and maybe I'll find proof of it by her laying.

Fingers crossed.