I recently received an email from a lady who hooked me up on a colony extraction job last summer. I thought that I would share the query and reply with those who wish to read about it.

Subject: bees
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:13:30 -0500
From: *****@****.com
To: wvbeekeeper@gmail.com

Hello Cass,



I got you the bees from Arbuckle Creek in Mason/Putnam Co. I was just wandering how they are. Did they survive?


Karen,
Thank you for contacting me so I could remove the colony there at Arbuckle Creek. It was a pleasure and a joy to meet your family. (If I remember correctly, that was your family, right?) The colony was an easy one to remove. I have had some colonies which required up to two weeks to remove. This includes restoring everything which needed to be removed in order to gain access to the colony. I did find the queen. She was a pretty one. Unfortunately for me, the queen did not have the superior genetics which I am looking for in my bees and one of the major reasons I perform colony extractions for individuals. The bees within the colony had varroa mites, an abundant amount, IMHO, based upon a visual inspection while removing the colony and after setting the colony up in my bee yard which is specifi9cally designed to hold colonies in quarentine until all proper health inspections are achieved. This colony was in such poor health when I extracted it, (I suspect insecticide had been administered to the colony though that accusation was enthusiastically denied), I attempted to requeen it with one of the queens that I had reared last season. I believe the colony would have been just fine but the degree of varroa infestation was overwhelming to the small number of bees which were removed and relocated. The colony perished. This was one of two colonies I removed last season which had wax that was heavily contaminated with insecticide and also a healthy population of mites. I personally believe that if this colony would have been left alone it would have died out not long after I removed it. However, I am glad to have performed the service for you and gave me additional experience at removing unwanted colonies. Thank you again, and if you have any additional questions please contact me anytime.

Thanks again and Happy New Year!!!!

Cass Cohenour


Should you ever need bees from a structure on or near your property, please do not spray the bees with Raid, Ortho, or any other insecticide. Go through the proper channels in your state or area to find who is willing to remove the bees for you. There is a few sites on the web which will give you the name of beekeepers local to your area who are willing to perform extractions for a fee. I will in the future charge more for my service the bees have been sprayed, possibly twice as much, for the bees are no longer any count to anyone once their wax is contaminated. During the upcoming Spring, and swarm season, if you can not find the proper channels to go through to find someone to remove bees in your area, please contact me and I can
probably find you someone to help.

HAPPY 2009!!!!!!

-CASS COHENOUR, aka WVBEEKEEPER