When I got calls for 2 big removals a couple of weeks ago I was happy - my hives needed a break from me robbing them, and I could use more hives. One removal was in the wall space of a wooden house and the other was in a fence. On first glance, from the outside, the wall bees looked like one large colony with two entrances.
Note the shadow of bees clustered under the boards in the foreground.
It ended up being two separate colonies, one at the near end of the wall under the window and the other at the far end, at the corner of the house. They were both 10y old hives full of honey and brood, which was great. The problem was that they were devil-bees.
It took me about 6 hours over two days to extract both hives and get them into boxes.
First hive under the window
Second hive by the corner
Both hives extracted and (more or less) in boxes.
Despite a full suit and leather gardening gloves worn over two layers of disposable latex gloves I got over 30 stings - on my hands and wrists, through my suit and jeans, and on my back. I was well protected; they were just that persistent. My suit and gloves looked like pin-cushions. I moved them to the permaculture farm just outside of Mt. Gambier with the rest of my bees, and then went to extract the third hive.
six foot high doubled-up steel fence with a 6 inch gap, under the shade of a gum tree... perfect spot for a monster hive.
Apparently this one got cleared out two years ago, but I wouldn't have guessed it. The comb was as tall as me, and the bees were the same temperament as the wall bees I had taken out earlier in the week. It took me a full Sunday. I got a three-box high warre full of brood, pollen, and honey-comb, plus two additional buckets of honey-comb for myself. I moved these ladies to the farm too.
About this time I got a text from Taryn, who runs the farm. She said she was pretty sure there were wasps on the property, and she basically had been cut off from half the farm because she kept being chased. Then the neighbours (and we're talking rural here, so the neighbours aren't next door) let me know that they were having issues going outside.
To cut the story short, lets just say I'm moving the bees to a much more remote location until re-qeening takes hold. I ordered a bunch of ligurian queens from KI, but it'll be a while before these three hives are domesticated. We may not have africanized bees in Australia, but we've got the next best thing for sure!