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usetobee

When is the best time to mow near bees?

usetobee
13 years ago

I have an older sandstone covered rental house and bees have a hive behind the rock and boxboard siding. They are entering through a hole near a window. My tenants no longer want to mow because the bees have became more agressive. I use to keep bees for a hobby back in the seventies and studied them with the intent to possibly expand my colonies. I gathered my first swarms from tree limbs and even took some out of a ceiling in a ceramics shop. Instead of building up an immunity to bee stings, my immunity broke down with each sting so I eventually had to give beekeeping up as a hobby.

The bees are not causing any problems in the house and the smell of honey isn't present in the house. I think I have a hive in a nearby sycamore tree as well and I do not want to destroy either of them. So in order to mow I must mow early morning before dawn or late at nite to avoid the path of the worker bee's flight patterns. Would it be possible to smoke the bees at the hole entrance and get them to become more docile in order to mow during the day and would the incoming bees not be agressive as they are carrying pollen, nectar, or water back to the hive and not have the dutie to protect the hive? I understand they are more agressive during the cooling off period in the evening and are more agressive on cloudy days.

I also understand that unless I remove the hive other swarms will eventually enter. However I do rememember I once stuffed an entrance to a hive behind a rock wall and later that evening went back to gather the bees that had accumulated outside that could not enter. I placed them in a hive and reintroduced them to my hive to strenghthen the colony I had that was a small one. I placed a newspaper between the new hive body and the old hive and after a few days the bees became acquainted and accepted each other. So if I did something similar in my present case, I could weaken the colony by robbing the bees and allowing another bee keeper to have them or just turn them loose at least three or four miles away from the current hive home. I would assuming that robber bees would deplete the hive of its honey stores and maybe eliminate the problem for at least this summer. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:428906}}

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