Removing beees from a roof

We are working on a slate roof and there is a honey bee colony in the upper corner of the hip roof. I would like a hive at the house and I believe that a wild hive would be a great addition. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get it removed? Is it expensive? I have called a local bee club and am waiting for a return call. I really don't want to just spray them and kill them as it seems that there is a lot of disease that is killing them by the hundreds of hives already.

You're right, they weren't Honey Bees. Yellow Jackets

They "Keep" honey bees. I will bet you got stung by a wasp or a yellow jacket.

Got stung twice today....A-HOLE Bees!

I have 2 uncles who keep bees. Guess I learned nothing from them....

We don't, they were really excited to try and get a wild hive. I guess they are more 'hearty" than the tame ones. Unfortunately, they were yellow jackets.

Don't kill the bees. There is a severe shortage nationwide.

I've seen a beekeeper chasing one of his queens that escaped. The swarm was flying around the yard. He grabbed the hose and started spraying the swarm. He grabbed two (old fashioned metal) garbage can lids and started banging them together as loud as he could. I'm assuming that he was trying to trick the bees into thinking that it was a thunderstorm.

It worked. The swarm landed on a branch in his tree. He leaned a ladder up there and walked up with a box. He reached into the middle and started scooping all the bees in to the box.

He didn't have any protection on. I was freaked out. He was calm. He did shoot us the evil eye when we made too much noise.

The bee men that came out talked of making a vacuum for the same purpose, but they vacuum them into a screen cage instead of the vacuum itself. The regular vacuums smash the bees when they are sucked in.

lanny Said: ---Had lots of bee problems over the years mostly in shake roofs. Mostly yellow jackets whcih are not friendly to a tear off crew about to tear off their nest. ---Have had several bee men out on emergency calls. The last one used a light powder which he very gently hand pumped at the opening. The powder gets on a few bees and they carry it into the hive. In 2-3 hours the bees are toast. Dont know what the powder was but it sure works well. ---My favorite bee remedy is my own. You get a regular shop vac and place the hose where the bees enter. The shop vac is left on for several hours. You can hear the bees go down the hose as they are sucked up. They slow down as they approach the hive and then are pulled into the hose. After a few hours not a bee can be found. Then you plug the hose end and store the vac. After a week you can pour out the dead bees. ---One time I called the county extension agent who has some degree and a fancy title and supposedly knows what to do. She tried to talk me into live and let live with the bees. I said that aint gonna happen. She replied that if you must you can (and this is a quote) hang a dead fish over a bucket of water and yellow jackets are such gluttons they will eat the fish until they cannot fly and then will drop into the bucket of water and drown. I kid you not!!! Well, I thought that was ridiculous so I (who have no degree in such things and am just a dumb roofer) invented the shop vac technique. ---There are bee people who will come and remove the hive by catching the queen. That is not for rookies.

Lanny

How's that work for wasps?

---Had lots of bee problems over the years mostly in shake roofs. Mostly yellow jackets whcih are not friendly to a tear off crew about to tear off their nest. ---Have had several bee men out on emergency calls. The last one used a light powder which he very gently hand pumped at the opening. The powder gets on a few bees and they carry it into the hive. In 2-3 hours the bees are toast. Don't know what the powder was but it sure works well. ---My favorite bee remedy is my own. You get a regular shop vac and place the hose where the bees enter. The shop vac is left on for several hours. You can hear the bees go down the hose as they are sucked up. They slow down as they approach the hive and then are pulled into the hose. After a few hours not a bee can be found. Then you plug the hose end and store the vac. After a week you can pour out the dead bees. ---One time I called the county extension agent who has some degree and a fancy title and supposedly knows what to do. She tried to talk me into "live and let live" with the bees. I said that ain't gonna happen. She replied that if you must you can (and this is a quote) hang a dead fish over a bucket of water and yellow jackets are such gluttons they will eat the fish until they cannot fly and then will drop into the bucket of water and drown. I kid you not!!! Well, I thought that was ridiculous so I (who have no degree in such things and am just a dumb roofer) invented the shop vac technique. ---There are bee people who will come and remove the hive by catching the queen. That is not for rookies.

Lanny

I had a bee keeper come out last week on a job. he brought a hive with a partially started honeycomb ,placed it next to the bee's- reached into the mass of bee's and grapped the queen. placed her in the new hive and in 15 minutes most of the bees had joined her (of course the bee person had on the full outfit) it depends on how brave (?) you are

On a reroof, we had finished the house and were starting to tearoff the roof of a wellhouse when we were attacked by very aggressive honey bees and had to call it a day. We learned the origin of the word beeline. They came straight for the eyes. The owner sprayed the hive and we went back the next day. The hive totally filled the wellhouse attic. Towards the end of the day, there were lots of bees flying around, but they were docile and left us alone. They were neighboring bees stealing the honey from the hive, and didn't feel any need to protect it. (Thieves like to lay low)

Have you seen the hive and if so, how big is it? We once had a hive the size of my truck in an attic...we called the bug man and he laughed...we ended up killing them. I would wait for a bee keeper if that is an option, I bet they will do it for the bees.

hi os a few yrs back i was roofing a split level . started the lower roof and where the building stepped up to 2nd floor about 9 am bees started coming out of the siding lotts of them, so we had to quit. so the next day we got their early and caulked up all the cracks . good for us bad for the people inside , about 10am they had to leave . third day we met with bee keeper early before it warmed up and removed siding .he had a 3ftx 3ft plywood box with plexiglas top shopvac hose on one end for sucking up bees , hose on other end going into vac but with screen over it to keep bees out of vac

FIND THE QUEEN ALL THE OTHERS WILL FOLLOW. Haven't you guys learned anything yet? PC

No idea, but I would be working that job by my damn self. My guys are so afraid of wasps/bee's it's no longer funny. Well OK sometimes it is funny...