BZZZZ!!!
So last fall I noticed a bunch of bees near the top of my shop building. I consulted the local beekeepers who advised me to leave them until spring–and then recover them.
With some trepidaton—actually quite a lot, today we tackled the project.
We had beesuits, a smoker, hive tool, buckets, fuel for the smoker, matches, utility knife–as the bees were between the outside wall and the inside wall of an old rice farmer house—not very insulated and clearly not very well sealed up.
After some doing, my sweet husband pried open the sheet rock and there they were—thousands of them–and not very happy. I took off my gloves to do some of the taskes and did not get stung—poor husband after all was said and done had one caught in his hair that stung him on the forehead. He must look more like a flower than i do–blonde hair and an orange shirt–I have dark hair and was wearing dark green and denim.
There was a huge amount of comb–much more than we could put in my little 8 frame box—easily larger than a hand width in depth and two feet long—and there were about six or seven pieces—we found one with brood—and just stuffed them into the box—with just one frame in there—I pulled out the other pieces of comb and put it in a bucket and more went into a box that we carried outside and put next to the hive body—and then we stuck the box with the frames on top—
Clearly we are amateurs at this—and I have no idea if we captured the queen or not—we now have lots of bees trying to get out of my shop—all hanging around the windows–that I cannot open—just screens—tomorrow we’ll take a vacuum out and see if we can vacuum them up and set them free outside—and seal up the hole. there is still some more comb–but small pieces—and full of honey.
Unfortunately I did not take photos of the comb–but you can see the size of the hole we cut in the wall—certainly easier from inside than on a ladder outside.
Sylvia Weir Art 
Wear white when working with bees. That’s why the beekeeper suits are white. If you have the larva, the queen should come. The hive should be close to where you captured them, and you can move it a foot a day until you have it where you want it.
we did have beesuits–but I discovered I needed to wear a hat underneath my veil–as it kept moving around and knocked off my glasses. They were caught in the veil so no harm to them. We will see what this looks like later today—but maybe we’ll let them alone for a couple of days before we check on them again. It was definitely an adventure and we are not planning to advertise ourselves as bee removers.