So I got a question. I heard from a non-bee friend that had a local beekeeper come out to remove a hive from her barn (she just bought a place and the barn had bees) that he wouldn’t remove the hive because it was “tainted” and what she was told is too many people tried to poison them (and failed) over the years.
Is there still no value to trying to pull the bees and comb, then tossing the bad wax comb (I understand poisons being in the comb) and having to move the bees into a completely new home (catching the queen herself would be a must).
As is the friend ended up having to kill them off with some kind of natural method she read about.
Hi Logan, makes no sense to me, and yes, you can take just the bees or take their comb and gradually replace it over time with new comb or foundation. Never heard of the term “tainted” unless the bees had been poisoned the day before, then its spells doom.
Mmmmm well I’m so was pretty clueless. She has lived at this place for just a couple months and before it was vacant for a few years. Sadly that is all the history I know.
The beekeeper that she had come by is a local mentor to many and is probably the main honey seller in our area, plus I know he has removed hives and swarms before so I thought the term tainted seemed very odd.
I directly asked her if he said Varroa, SHB, and (what I thought) AFB but she just said “poisoned too much”
Well if anyone else could maybe shed some light on it. I know this land is close enough to the town it could have got some mosquito sprayer chem on them, but if so it would be years and years…
Does seem odd. Best I can come up with is that the beekeeper’s main profit is from wax & didn’t see the job as worthwhile due to its condition…no idea how he’d be able to see that but of course I wasn’t there & am inexperienced.
I’d agree with Redderrich … Swap the comb out over time … No harm trying if the bees look healthy ( not a lot of deformed n weird acting)… I’d guess the supposedly “beekeeper” dodge a bullet he had second thots about. I run into the same weird excuses in a different line of work because it was harder than the previous dude wanted to work.
As you work the swarm over n retrieve it you will be able to look over all the comb, larva, capped stuff. Eventually swap it out over few years n enjoy your new bees. Doesn’t sound like you have much to loss. Anymore I have to GO for the easier SWARMs… I’m getting too old to go for the high, tough n dangerous ones. But I honest about why I can’t do a retrieval with people. I just wish
people calling me with swarm issues were more honest … I arrived at swarms n found them to be waaaaaaay to high or something but the reporters gave it a glowing happy face easy JOB badge
… I arrived at swarms n found them to be waaaaaaay to high or something but the reporters gave it a glowing happy face easy JOB badge 
Otherwise I would have at least went over to look at them myself.