Do I Need to Remove Hive in and Owl Box?

by Gary
(Carlsbad, CA)

Great site - a fine public service. I would appreciate any thoughts on the following problem - if it is indeed a problem.

Bees have taken residence in an owl box (which, to my dismay, failed to attract any owls) in my Carlsbad CA backyard. The box hangs about 30 feet above ground in a eucalyptus tree (with a hawk nesting in the same tree another 30 or more feet up from the bees) and about 75 feet from my back door and more than that from neighbors' homes.

The bees have been there for several weeks now and I have been unconcerned with their presence (in fact actually pleased by it) until I read of the recent "killer bee" attacks in the San Diego Tribune.

I now am a bit concerned that the power mower used by my gardener or or some other disturbance might touch off an attack on people or pets. Should I be concerned and have the hive removed?

Hi Gary

Well that's an easy question, unfortunately the answer is more difficult.

I have removed bees from owl boxes so I know the challenges. The problem is really that the owl box will be very difficult to remove gently because it's 30 feet up in the air.

If you leave it as it is and enjoy the bees, it might never become a problem. However if the bees live there successfully, even for a few months, the box will become very heavy with comb, brood and honey. This makes it extremely difficult to remove.

I wouldn't be too concerned about killer bees (I prefer the name Africanized bees) since these aren't very common. I work with bees every day and have only come across colonies which were extremely aggressive a handful of times.

If it was my owl box I would remove it from the pole as soon as possible and either transfer the bees to a hive (before they build a lot of comb) and keep them at ground level, or simply leave them in the owl box on the ground. If they do become a problem in the future they would be much easier to deal with in the ground.

(Actually if it was my owl box I would have suspended it on a nylon rope with some sort of pulley system, then when it needed to be cleaned, repaired, or if bees had moved in, I could easily lower it to the ground.)

If the colony was transferred to a hive you could reinstall the owl box on the pole. If it was decided to keep them in the box you could install another box.

Before you do erect another box, paint the inside of the box with vegetable oil and dust it with Sevin® dust. I'm reliably informed that this will not harm the owls, in fact it is used by falconers to kill parasites in the birds' feathers. However it will kill 'scout bees' which are looking for a new location, thus preventing the box being re-colonized by another swarm.

The Bee Guy