| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Mary-Jane |
Bee emergency in Aberystwyth - can anyone help?Our main teaching room in the Centre for Legal Practice at Aberystwyth University has a bees nest embedded in one of the external walls just by the main window. We've been asking Estates Management to do something about it for nearly three years now and at best, they have turned up, stared at it, scratched their heads, said "Ooooh - can't get access to that" and gone away again.
The problem is that the bees can get into the main classroom and our Resource Room, which causes problems for us and the students whilst we're teaching. In exasperation today, I sent off a fairly stiff email to the Estates Management team pointing out that it probably wasn't a good idea to ignore a department of 6 qualified lawyers and a student body of 35 soon-to-be-lawyers where there was a very real chance of an 'avoidable incident' taking place which could put the university's duty of care towards their students and staff in question... It seems to have done the trick and now they've stirred into action by trying to sort out the blocking up of the holes where the bees gain entry to our classroom. However - it doesn't solve the problem of the bees themselves - which are obviously honey bees. We don't want the nest to be destroyed if at all possible - so I suggested they contact local bee keepers to see if anything can be done about removing the said bees to a hive. So, does anyone know any local-ish bee keepers to Aber? Or has anyone else got any other ideas? 
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| jocorless |
Oooh fascinating - they may have to remove some of the wall to get the bee's out - the trouble is finding the Queen - get her out and everyone else will follow - unfortunately thats not exactly a simple task - Let us know what happens | ||||
| Cathryn |
Lottie.
I will give her a ring if you like? |
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| Cathryn |
Wonder if she can save them while I get a hive...
Failing lottie, there is someone just up the drive who runs the honey farm locally, I could ask him. (He's never in, probably avoiding me because I want to get a hive.  )
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| Mary-Jane |
Spoken to this lady http://www.wbka.com/aberystwyth.html
She doesn't hold out much hope for saving them - no way of getting to the queen as Jocorless says. She reckond they'll prolly have to be poisoned or sealed up inside the wall to die... 
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| Dr Rob |
I'm distraught | ||||
| lottie |
I'm afraid Ann's right if they are awkwardly placed there is not much you can do---I would have been useless anyway---as posted earlier on another topic I'm having a kidney/gallstone episode and am as much use as a chocolate fireguard---believe me if there was any chance of taking them you'd have been knocked down in the rush. | ||||
| bodger |
Once they are established in somewhere like that its virtualy impossible to remove the colony intact. I've dealt with a number of situations like that and I'm afraid that if you can't put up with them, then the only answer is destruction. 
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| Barefoot Andrew |
Such a shame, especially considering the topic of tonight's BBC4 prog.
A. |
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| Tavascarow |
Not easy.
The quick way is to remove some of the internal plasterboard & literally cut the comb out of the wall bees & all. You then wire the combs into frames to use in a conventional hive. Never done it as I've never been that desparate to get a swarm. It's possible to smoke them out putting a nuc box very near the entrance (inches) & driving them off the comb with copious amounts of smoke into the awaiting nuc box. again never done it. Whatever method of capture or destruction they should remove the comb & honey rather than just seal it up as the honey will ferment & grow moulds & bacteria & ciould cause rot to set into the wall. Also it will atract wasps & ants & maybe even another bee awarm if every crack isn't sealed. |
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| lottie |
It's possible to smoke them out putting a nuc box very near the entrance (inches) & driving them off the comb with copious amounts of smoke into the awaiting nuc box. again never done it.
T.B.H. I know someone who tried something similar in an attic a couple of years ago---It was a dismal failure. 
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| lottie |
Re: Bee emergency in Aberystwyth - can anyone help?
Just a thought but they are definitely honey bees and not masonary bees? 3 years is a long time for native/swarmed bees to be keeping healthy with varroa about. |
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| Mary-Jane |
Re: Bee emergency in Aberystwyth - can anyone help?
Defo honey bees Lottie. |
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| Mary-Jane |
I should mention that we're 3 floors up and the bees' nest in inside an outside wall...if you see what I mean. |
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| bodger |
The thing is, that after a couple of years in situ you can hardly class them as a swarm. | ||||
| dpack |
live in harmony
bees good or op toxins and some pointing |
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| Tavascarow |
Re: Bee emergency in Aberystwyth - can anyone help?
Good innit!! Eventually nature always balances the odds if you allow it time. I have a friend who has a WBC hive on a nursery that has never been treated for varroa & still survives. (I now have a swarm from him). Small nasty bad tempered little bas***ds they are but I love them. 
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| lowri |
I had bees under the roof a few years ago, they got in through an ill-fitting window frame. Only a few actually appeared in the attic roof space. I could kneel on the landing and hear them through the wall. It would have been impossible for anyone to take the swarm without demolishing the back wall of the house!
I asked advice from various people, can't remember if I posted a thread, it may have been before I discovered you all. In the end, after three days, I spoke to them and told them that although I was delighted with their presence, I felt it wasn't wise for them to stay as there weren't that many flowers around. I suggested that they should move on - and to my amazement they did!! 
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| bodger |
I watched it until ten past midnight and fell a sleep twenty minutes from the end. Good programme but a shame that I missed the conclusion.
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| Mary-Jane |
BBC iplayer? |
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| lottie |
If they've been there 3 years and thriving with no help that's unusual nowadays--which is why there are far far fewer wild colonies about. Wish they were gettable ---sound like ideal bees to have
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| cassy |
Could the University not make a big deal about 'it's' bee colony and take steps to protect it? It would be great publicity and help set an example for others.
Put mesh on the windows so that they can be opened without the bees coming in, seal up any other entrance into the classroom itself etc. Students would be informed so that those who were allergic could make sure they had their epipens. Surely it's nothing that a robust risk assessment could not take care of. A bee colony nowadays is something to be proud of and protected IMHO! Seems a shame that it has to go because it inconvenience people. |
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| Gervase |
My thoughts too. A judicious piece in the Cambrian News could both save the bees and garner some good publicity for the university. |