Coffee Talk

Well Gang ...Coffee Mug along side of my desk, really my 3rd cup of the morning. We as Jen told you in her Blog we have Dan & Jenny's dog ,Angel here with us for the week as they are in N.H at a show attempting to sell their long arm quilters. Angel takes a few days we have found in the past to acclimate to our house , with each passing day and each passing visit it takes less time for her and us. Bed time causes her the most trouble and the most amount of work by me. Angel always needs a drink of water at bed time and that's OK since we have no less then 2 bowels of water down in the kitchen. Here's the glitch .......After I get into bed, Jake on one side of the bed on the floor, Bailey on my side on the floor or under the bed, Daphne on top of the covers between Jen and Me . We are all sort of set for sleep and we figure Angel will find a spot for the night. I'm not sure where.........But she will find a spot. After we are set in bed Angel needs water before going to sleep and wants someone to follow her to the water in the near dark kitchen and stand with her while she drinks. That means I get out of bed and walk with her in the kitchen and stand by her as she drinks. That's OK, she is here and a guest, she has no Idea why, so we can make her comfortable. Angel then needs to go out after her drink! After a Very short run outside by Angel while I stand on the front porch she runs out and just as quick back and set for the night. Seems Dan and Jenny are earlier risers in the morning as Angel is awake at 7 am and ready for her next run outside.........Our Crew( Jake, Bailey & Daphne) not so much, Jake breaks from his snoring a short second as my feet hit the floor and then returns back to a deep sleep and a slight change in pitch in his snoring. Bailey may or may not move and Daphne will just give out a Yelling Bark or two showing her displeasure in any disruption of bedroom quiet. Angel makes her quick run outside and back again to find a spot on the living room couch. I did a Bee Removal yesterday in Ballston Spa with a fellow named John B. , a Bee Club Member who also does bees. The house was a house under construction or should I say renovation and going to be flipped soon. The siding Crew at the house had removed the 40 plus year old a couple months ago. This house had many years ago insulation blown into the walls from outside and under the old siding before it was installed. To do the insulation the insulation crew drills holes into the house, holes about 1 1/2 inch in size and are drilled every 16 inches or so as to get in between each and every stud in the wall. Well in this case it appears that the insulation crew many years ago missed the area between two studs on the second floor. The newly uncovered hole by the siding crew after siding was removed in preparation for new siding exposed this 1 1/2 drilled hole and a vacant space for the bees to find. I suspect that what we call a swarm of bees left a full bee hive somewhere and landed in the newly exposed 1 1/2 hole provided by the siding crew about a month ago. They (Bees) set up shop in the empty wall between the studs and lived there very happily until yesterday. Well it appears that none of the crews working on the house wanted to do anything near where the Bees set up house keeping, hundreds of bees coming and going in and out through this 1 1/2 hole on the side of the house. Not to mention the inside of the wall also needed to be repaired and with one slight hit of a hammer on that wall or the rip of a crow bar you might release hundreds of bees into the house.........In comes the "Eviction Crew " John B. and Jerry. John & I figure our plan of attack would be best from the inside which was the 2ND floor bathroom that had plaster and lath construction. We had a good idea where to set up and localised the bay or area that we intended to remove to expose the bees and hive. We have specialized bee vacuums and other bee tools, we also have the normal construction tools, pry bars, saws and hammers. John and I gear up......Protective clothing, veils and taped up pants at the base by our shoes so that one or more of the bees don't make it up the pant leg....Ouch!!!!!! Bet you never thought about that! Gear set up and protective clothing in place we open up the wall removing plaster and lath from the area we have figured house the hive. Dust flying, bees envelope the room and they are not happy campers..... That's OK as we are set up and work at using the special vacuum to suck up the bees without killing them, we are also keeping our eyes open for that Queen that will help us keep this hive safe and in place when we relocate the bees to a new hive in one of our bee yards. The Queen will will keep the others in place and producing honey so the hive can make it through the winter. If we see her we have a small Queen cage that we place her in while we work. She, the Queen does not always make an appearance that we see but sometimes does get sucked up in our vacuum which is OK as long as she does not get injured or killed. We wont know if we have her for a few days or more after placing these bees on to a hive....we will be looking for her or her eggs after they have settled into the new hive. If she is lost or killed you can buy a new Queen from Bee Keepers who raise Queens. Introduce the new Queen to the hive and it should take off.........Maybe. After opening the wall we found what we thought a smaller hive . A hive that was not to old between the studs and about floor to ceiling in the area that we exposed, Bees using that 1 1/2 hole in the siding as a front door. We never saw the Queen in the removal , did see evidence that she was around before we arrived ,so with any luck she got sucked up without injuries. After cleaning out the wall of wax , honey and bees we closed up the outside hole so that any bees still out in the field gathering and returning to the now removed hive will find the front door closed and locked.. Hopefully they will find a new location to move onto or an established hive and add to that hives health . The bees we removed placed into a new hive body that we brought with us and placed into John's Bee Yard. We will see how they make out. Til next time Gang.......I'm off to do some Robbing of Honey from My Bee Yard, Jerry