• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

An Oregon Cottage logo

  • Recipes
    • Best Dessert Recipes
    • Easy Salad Recipes
    • Easy Side Dish Recipes
    • Homemade Bread Recipes
    • Sourdough Recipes
    • Homemade Soup Recipes
    • Pantry Basics Recipes
    • Simple Dinner Recipes
    • Simple Slow Cooker Recipes
    • Simple Snack Recipes
  • Canning & Preserving
    • Canning Recipes
    • Dehydrator Recipes
    • Freezing Produce
    • Fermented Food Recipes
  • Easy Gardening
    • Yard & Garden Tour
    • Vegetable Gardening
    • Flower Gardening
    • Gardening Tips
    • Ultimate Vegetable & Fruit Guides
  • Remodeling & DIY
    • 1900 Farmhouse
    • 1982 Ranch-turned-Cottage
    • Simple Crafts & Handmade Gifts
  • Shop
    • Flexible Planner, Cookbooks, Ebooks & More
    • An Oregon Cottage's Amazon Shop
    • Shopping and Gift Guides
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Organic Gardening
  • DIY & Remodeling
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Get my newsletters + access to a library full of printables!

    Home » Blog » Organic Gardening

    October 1, 2013 | By Jami

    Bee Update: Harvesting Wild Bees

    Today I have a special treat for you all - an update on the bees that my brother-in-law (affectionately known as 'Zack, the Bee Man') keeps on our property and how he harvested wild bees from an old barn!

    You may remember when I first told you about the bees arriving and when Zack gave us a BeeKeeper's Perspective and a ton of great information about raising bees last year.

    Well, there's bad news-good news on the bee front and Zack's back again to give us an update:

    Bee Man Harvesting Wild Bees::An Oregon Cottage

    Last year I started keeping honeybees as a hobby and I ended up falling in love. I quickly became emotionally attached to my "girls" and would often find myself gazing at them in wonderment as they buzzed from flower to flower collecting nectar and pollen, all the while pollinating the garden.

    I refer to them as "my girls" even though a couple hundred male drones live in the hive, but rarely leave. Male honeybees have no stinger and do not help out with the daily chores around the hive (cleaning, tending to the brood, collecting food for the winter, etc). Subsequently all the girls kick the boys out in late fall so they don't eat all the food stores over the winter!!

    As I wrote last year, I'm a novice beekeeper and am still learning how to manage my girls appropriately. Last fall I tried to get away with not medicating my two hives for mites, but unfortunately both of our hives did not make it through the winter. I was heartbroken!

    This spring I decided I still wanted to keep honeybees but now I had the task of somehow getting more girls to populate my empty boxes. There are really only three options to get more bees:

    • Option #1: Buy two more packages of bees from a local beekeeper for $80 a piece.
    • Option #2: Get the bees to come to me.
    • Option #3: Find and get the bees myself.

    Because I promised my wife this was just a hobby and I wasn't going to spend a lot of money on this new hobby, option 1 was off the table. I then tried option 2 and for two months I tried to "bait" the empty hives with lemongrass essential oil, but that didn't pan out. The summer was starting to drag on and I was becoming worried that I wouldn't find any girls in time to make a strong hive that would survive the winter!

    Harvesting Wild Bees: first cut revealed

    Then one day about two months ago I was contacted by a property owner in a nearby town who owns an old gymnasium that is scheduled to be demolished and had honeybees living in the walls. He wanted to save the honeybees so he contacted me to extract the bees. For me it was a perfect scenario - I got free bees and I didn't have to worry about the large holes I would be leaving in the walls.

    Harvesting Wild Bees:Extracting with Homemade Bee Vac

    So, it was option three and I quickly purchased a second bee suit for friends who would accompany me with the extraction process and then I built a bee vac that I would use to suck up the bees from the walls (here's the video I used to build my bee vac).

    Wild Bees:Extracting bees from an old barn

    I was able to extract six hives from the old gym. Some of the hives were very large and had lots of extra honey in them and others were quite small or had been recently evacuated. All the extra wax from the hives was melted down in a large pot and will be used to make beautiful beeswax candles later this year. A great Christmas present to go along with a jar of your own honey. Shhh, don't tell my sister-in-law!

    Harvesting Wild Bees: Barn wall fully opened

    The process of extracting bees from a wall is very exciting. The initial cut with the skill saw on the wall puts all the guard bees on high alert. They pelt your bee suit like a shotgun gone off in your face.

    How to Harvest Wild Bees::An Oregon Cottage

    I vacuumed the bees into an empty bee box then cut out their own honeycomb and tied that comb into empty frames and placed those frames into an empty bee box.

    Harvesting Wild Bees: Bees into new hive

    When all the honeycomb had been extracted and a majority of the bees sucked up, I placed the new box with their comb on top of the box where all the bees were and then removed the mesh in between the two boxes so the bees could repopulate their own comb.

    There was definitely a steep learning curve to the whole process. After four trips to the old gym (over a two month period) I ended up extracting six hives. The first two extractions didn't make it. I combined two of the weaker hives together and now we have three strong hives that hopefully will make it through the winter.

    Wild Bee Honey

    I medicated all three hives for varroa mites this year and I think they have plenty of honey to make it through the winter. Fingers crossed, hopefully I'll be writing another guest post in early spring next year updating you about my three new beehives that made it through the winter!

    Harvesting Wild Bees

    Thanks, Zack!

    As for Brian and I - we love having the bees on our property and watching them pollinate our flowers and produce.

    We just make sure to stay inside for a bit when Zack brings another hive, 'cause they can be kinda upset about the whole moving thing!

    About Jami

    Since 2009 Jami Boys has been helping readers live a simple homemade life through whole food recipes, doable gardening, and easy DIY projects on An Oregon Cottage. From baking bread, to creating a floor from paper, to growing and preserving food, Jami shares the easiest ways to get things done. She's been featured in Cottages and Bungalows, Old House Journal, and First for Women magazines as well as numerous sites like Good Housekeeping, Huffington Post, and Apartment Therapy.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      Recipe Rating




    1. Joyce says

      October 02, 2013 at 10:15 am

      We have been thinking about keeping bees, just wondering if there is a specific reason they did not make through the winter? Also is there something that can be done to make sure they do? Great post I marveled at all the honey bees uncovered, awesome.

      Would love for you to share at Tuesdays With a Twist. http://yourlife7.blogspot.com/2013/10/tuesdays-with-twist-26-link-up.html

      Reply
    2. daisy says

      October 02, 2013 at 3:16 am

      That is nothing short of amazing. He found the perfect solution and it worked out for everyone, including the bees! Love when that happens!

      Reply
    3. Nancy W says

      October 01, 2013 at 6:23 pm

      Loved the story about the bees, what an adventure. We used to keep bees and I just loved having them! thanks also for hosting! Wanted to let you know I'm doing a giveaway for a food dehydrator this week on my blog! Stop on over if you are interested! Nancy

      Reply
    4. deb @ frugallittlebungalow says

      October 01, 2013 at 3:39 pm

      Thank you for hosting and I hope for great results with the bees going forward! 🙂

      Reply
      • Zack says

        October 01, 2013 at 11:28 pm

        Thanks Deb. I'll keep you all posted on how the girls do over this winter.

        Reply
    5. debra@ HOMESPUN says

      October 01, 2013 at 3:28 pm

      i DO remember last year and as to this year. ha ha typical guy understatement " The process of extracting bees from a wall is very exciting"

      LOL! Love it! 🙂

      I had so many bees this year between all my bushes and flowers and I just loved that ...I appreciate them so ! 🙂

      Reply
    6. Angi says

      October 01, 2013 at 2:06 pm

      I loved reading this! My husband and our 15yr old son do live bee removals. We have 6 hives in our back yard and they are all rescued bees. I linked up our latest update on them and how they processed over 10 gallons of honey.

      Reply
      • Jami says

        October 01, 2013 at 2:26 pm

        Woot! Why am I not surprised, Angi? 🙂 Hopefully one day we will get 10 gallons of Honey, too!

        Reply
      • Zack says

        October 01, 2013 at 11:26 pm

        Love it!! Did you make your own shop vac for your extractions? I never knew extracting bees from an old gym would be so exciting. I just love the anticipation of what the comb looks like in the walls. It's always amazing to see what incredible hives they build.

        Reply
    7. Natalia @PrepUtilityVehicle says

      October 01, 2013 at 1:54 pm

      That is fascinating! A lot of work; I'm glad some of the bees were able to make 3 new hives but like Christine, sad that 2 hives died. I wish Mr Bee would have explained what happened. I was speculating that the vacuum used for the 1st 2 hives was too strong and injured them. I hope the rest do really well long-term!

      Reply
      • Zack says

        October 01, 2013 at 11:23 pm

        Natalia, I was extremely sad at the loss of my two original hives as well. The first hive I extracted from the gym was HUGE. The owner of the property said that particular hive had been there for over 10 years. It was the first hive to populate the old gym. It was easily twice the size of the hive I showed you in the blog!! Unfortunately I was low on the learning curve for that extraction and used a shop vac hose that I borrow from my father in law. The hose was 13 feet long!! Needless to say, the girls kind of got beat up too much on their way into the hive. I keep the suction low, but the distance traveled in the hose was just too treacherous for them 🙁 After those first two hive extraction, I purchased a much shorter (6 feet) and larger diameter shop vac hose for sucking them into the hive

        Reply
    8. Shannon says

      October 01, 2013 at 1:47 pm

      What a fun post! My dad raised bees in NC when I was a little girl. There was always so much excitement around the whole process. This brought back a rush of fun memories. Thanks and good luck to the new hives!!!!

      Reply
      • Zack says

        October 01, 2013 at 11:17 pm

        Thanks for the good luck wishes with my new hives. Extracting bees from homes and old structures might be the way to go for me. It's cheap, plus I get to save some girls.

        Reply
    9. Mindy says

      October 01, 2013 at 10:29 am

      Oh my gosh, that is CRAZY!!!! How cool, though.

      Reply
    10. Christine says

      October 01, 2013 at 7:21 am

      Woooooowwwwww.
      I felt so sad that some didn't make it through the winter or the move. Do they just die? Or do they incorporate into another hive? This is fascinating.

      Reply
      • Zack says

        October 01, 2013 at 11:15 pm

        Christine, Unfortunately I think the girls last year came down with a varroa mite infestation. I did not medicate the hive last year for this mite and I think that's was caused their demise. I medicated them this year, so keep your fingers crossed.

        Reply
    11. Vickie says

      October 01, 2013 at 7:05 am

      What a great story. I could hear bees buzzing around as I was reading! Here's to three healthy hives next spring! Thank you for hosting the linky party - have a great week!

      Reply

    Primary Sidebar

    Jami Boys headshot

    Hi, I'm Jami and I'm so glad you're here! My desire is to help you live a simple homemade life through delicious whole food recipes, easy organic gardening and preserving your harvest.

    Read More →

    Popular Posts

    • Easy, Soft 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Tutorial
    • cabbage wedges on white plate with sauce and chives
      Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Onion Dijon Sauce
    • Easy Sourdough Artisan Bread Recipe (Ready in 1 Day)
    • Original Brown Paper Floor Tutorial: A DIY Alternative to Wood Floors
    • Basket of fresh green beans
      How To Freeze Green Beans The Easy Way Without Blanching
    • 5 Reasons To Grow Cucumbers On A Trellis (And Taking Up Less Space Isn't One Of Them)

    ALL OUR CATEGORIES

    • Mail
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • Privacy Policy & Disclosure
    • Terms of Use & Disclaimer

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up! for emails and updates

    Contact

    • Contact
    • Collaboration & Advertising

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Disclaimer: All Content Provided On An Oregon Cottage Is For Informational Purposes Only. The Owner Of This Blog Makes No Representations As To The Accuracy Or Completeness Of Any Information On This Site Or Found By Following Any Link On This Site.

    Copyright © 2009-2023 An Oregon Cottage | No Content On This Site, Including Text And Photos, May Be Reused In Any Fashion Without Written Permission.