Does anyone know about keeping bees?

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My neighbor relocated a bunch of bees that had been inhabiting her shed for a few years. I told her that I would take the comb (beeswax and honey,YAY). But the comb is full of larvae, I feel terrible:(. I'm wondering if the ones in their final larval stage (they are mobile) might still hatch.
 
Probably not. They need to be kept at a constant temp and humidity, workers do that by fanning their wings. Even if they did hatch, they would have no queen, no home and would likely die as they couldn't just move in with other bees.
 
That makes me REALLY sad... I'm glad the bees were moved and not killed, but now Im Wondering if the queen went too or not. There are still some bees out there, not willing to leave the pieces of comb. I feel bad, but she was going to throw it all away.
 
They need to be put into a regular hive ASAP -- the brood will die of cold if they are not kept warm.

The proper way to do this is to cut the comb out of wherever they are and put it into empty frames in a new hive.

If this was done, they may survive. If not, they will lose all the brood, but that's still not the end of the hive if you can supply them with an appropriate box -- if the queen is still alive and they have some stores (or you feed them syrup and protein patties) they can rebuild if the weather is OK. Don't know where you are, here at the moment it's not a good idea to do a cutout, it's the middle of the winter!

Peter
 
When you say the colony was "relocated", I'm assuming a beekeeper did the job? If so, the person should have taken as much of the brood as possible.

If by "relocated" you mean the property owner just sort of ripped the colony out of the building, that's not so good.

Assuming a beekeeper did the job, I know it isn't possible for a beekeeper to save every bit of a "cutout" colony, but they should have saved most of the brood, so don't feel too bad. Any stray bees that the beekeeper didn't collect will cling to the remaining brood comb because bees are instinctively drawn to the scent of the brood. These adult bees may drift to other bee colonies in the local area and finish their lives in their new home. Let's hope they do.

Without a queen and enough worker and nurse bees to make a viable colony, I have some bad news -- the brood in the comb you have will die, since there is no colony to properly care for them. If you want to kill them humanely, I would cut any honey comb off the brood comb, set the honey comb aside to harvest the honey, and put the brood comb in the freezer for a few days. :(

Use this brood comb as a fire starter if you do that kind of thing. Otherwise discard it. Brood comb that is very dark is not likely to give you much beeswax. What beeswax you do get from it is likely to be quite dark. You're better off to focus on harvesting the wax from the honey comb and the lighter parts of the brood comb.

To harvest the honey, crush the honey comb with your hands, put the crushed comb in a colander, and let the honey drip into a bowl. If it's sunny and warm, put the crushed comb in a warm sunny area to let the warmth make the honey more fluid. But don't make the mistake of putting the crushed comb outdoors while you're straining the honey. If you do, you'll be feeding the entire neighborhood's bees fairly soon!

After you've gotten as much honey as is reasonable, then you can put the "wet" honey comb outdoors in an out-of-the-way place and let the local bees clean the comb for you. But watch safely from afar as they do it -- it's fun to see, but you don't want to be in the middle of a honey bee feeding frenzy. Once they've licked it dry, you can melt the comb and harvest the wax.
 
Thank you so much for the detailed reply, there is a lot of larvae, and I feel terrible. Yes, it mostly very dark, as is the honey strained thus far. It's very good though. I have the combs in a couple of buckets on the back porch. I'm wondering if I should just set the buckets in the freezer. I hate the thought, but more humane, I came a cross that in my reading as well :(. So the bees that are still hanging around may survive?? My son and I were carefully removing the bees that appeared to be stuck, and setting them in the bushes. This appears to have been a botched job. A bee keepers suit does not a bee keeper make :evil:

Interesting to know that bees will help clean the comb!
 
Yes, the adult bees may well survive if they can find another colony in the area. It's probably warm enough where you are that the adult bees will be fine staying in the open overnight and they'll look for a new home in the daylight.

The honey isn't stained by the comb -- the darkness of the honey comes from the nectar source the honey is made from. I don't know the nectar sources in south Florida, but if the honey were from here in Iowa, a darker honey is usually from late summer and early fall. It will usually have a bolder taste with a citrusy or even spicy overtone. Early summer honey is lighter color with a more floral, light flavor -- more like the usual store bought honey.

My bees cleaning up comb --

DSC_0011a.jpg
 
Hmmm. If this is an "after" picture, I'd be wondering if the beekeeper actually caught the queen. If it is a "before" picture, then it looks like a pretty normal bee colony, just not in a place where a person would want them to be.
 
Too bad. Not sure how many 'Left over Bees" are there but if you could have made a small hive, AND there were enough worker bees and honey, they May have been able to survive.

Kinda all depends on how many workers and if there were Queen cells or larve that was young enough for them to raise another Queen.

My yard is too small so I can't have them here. Plus I filled that space with Hens ;)

GL
 

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