"Can I lure the bees out of my wall by placing an empty hive next to it?"
Odds are very slim, in fact you may possibly be better off playing the lottery! You have an established hive in your wall, building, garage, hollow tree, irrigation water line box, or other inconvenient for you location. A very good question is how to economically and ethically move the hive to a new home. Many people like to hope that by putting an empty "bait" or "lure" hive next to the entrance of the established hive will make the current bees want to pack up their belongings and move to this new, fancy, upgraded, luxury home you made just for them. Here is why I have never heard of this working:
An established hive has a combination of brood in various stages, stores of pollen and honey. The queen's pheromone is throughout the hive. There is so much work for them to do. From raising the young that is in various ages, caring for the temperature, cleaning and making more comb, storing pollen, turning nectar into honey, guarding the hive, and much more. They depend on each other working together to make the hive function and thrive acting pretty much as a single organism.
You can place an empty hive nearby and you will likely see bees going in and out of it. Are they moving in? Most likely, no. They are searching for resources as they will salvage wax or honey out of your hive to take back to their own. IF a colony does move in, it is likely a swarm from another location and you will then have two hives!
They only way to remove the hive from the inconvenient location is to gently transfer the brood comb and queen and scrape out any signs of wax. Then seal it up to prevent any other bees from moving in. Once a hive has made a home others will choose to live in the same spot after they are gone if given the opportunity.
Odds are very slim, in fact you may possibly be better off playing the lottery! You have an established hive in your wall, building, garage, hollow tree, irrigation water line box, or other inconvenient for you location. A very good question is how to economically and ethically move the hive to a new home. Many people like to hope that by putting an empty "bait" or "lure" hive next to the entrance of the established hive will make the current bees want to pack up their belongings and move to this new, fancy, upgraded, luxury home you made just for them. Here is why I have never heard of this working:
An established hive has a combination of brood in various stages, stores of pollen and honey. The queen's pheromone is throughout the hive. There is so much work for them to do. From raising the young that is in various ages, caring for the temperature, cleaning and making more comb, storing pollen, turning nectar into honey, guarding the hive, and much more. They depend on each other working together to make the hive function and thrive acting pretty much as a single organism.
You can place an empty hive nearby and you will likely see bees going in and out of it. Are they moving in? Most likely, no. They are searching for resources as they will salvage wax or honey out of your hive to take back to their own. IF a colony does move in, it is likely a swarm from another location and you will then have two hives!
They only way to remove the hive from the inconvenient location is to gently transfer the brood comb and queen and scrape out any signs of wax. Then seal it up to prevent any other bees from moving in. Once a hive has made a home others will choose to live in the same spot after they are gone if given the opportunity.
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