Updates:

I moved my queen breeder box to Mom's

I moved my Barrel hive to a buddy's (Huff) house in Price

I moved my Golden Wootens to a yard in Spanish Fork

I killed the unproductive queen in my north hive at moms. Put in a frame of eggs and brood from one of my queen breeder hives.

I Added another super to the hive at Brent's

Videos:

Drones hatching

Honey bees fighting off a bumble bee

Honey bee fighting a wax moth larva

several updates

queen in small nuc box was killed - nuc was robbed out.

moved 2 hives to moms - the split from rosiers - the split from pattersons

queen in queen box south is hatched and walking around - no sign of eggs yet

pulled honey from haycock cutout

pulled box of brood from haycock cutout - put it on tree cutout

moved both haycock cutout and tree cutout to tavaputs ranch - flowers everywhere!  - put them in a "bear proof" dog kennel - added 4 empties to haycock cutout (8 total boxes) - added 3 empties to tree cutout (5 total boxes)

jared tells me the bees in the hobble creek bee tree are still very active. maybe it was too early in the morning when I checked before.

Now you see it, now you don't (but the other way 'round!

queen box north - now has a laying queen - i found brood open and capped

took 2 queen cells from my queen builder

put one in queen box south (queenless)

put another one in a nuc box with a frame of nurse bees/honey and a frame of pollen

queen cells

2 queen cells in my queen breeder - 1 capped  :)

queens

rosier hive - queen hatched - other queen cells ripped open
no longer queenless!

My queen rearing box is queenless on both sides. I took some eggs from (rosier split) hive the other day and put them in my queen box - 3 queen cells growing now. :)

Ephraim cutout (14 feet up)

Got a call a couple weeks ago from an apartment manager in Ephraim. He had a colony of bees in an apartment that he wanted removed.
We talked about it for a bit and decided we'd give it a try.

They were entering the building between the bricks at the end of a rain gutter above the third floor. We first checked the wells and ceiling inside the apartment (was vacant) but found no bees. We started poking holes in the wall of the entry stair and finally found them in the ceiling. We had 2 12 foot ladders but were not comfortable doing a cutout standing on the top of a ladder. The apartment manager rounded up some scaffolding for us. This positioned us about 6 feet beneath the hive and put them in easy reach.

We set up a bee vacuum on the roof to catch any field bees returning to the colony.
This worked great. The only thing I'd change is to set this up earlier. Maybe let it go all day (time permitting)

Video of bee vac in action.

I don't know why but it's funny to me to watch the bees get sucked right out of the air.

exploratory holes

Found 'em!

scaffolding setup

Mess

job done

Things we did right:

1 - The double bee vac system was awesome. We didn't end up with 30,000 bees on the outside when we were done.

Things I'd do different:
1 - start earlier (we didn't actually start the removal until about 8:30 pm (finished at 2)
2 - cover the ground better (faster clean up)
3 - make sure we have everything we need (including water) right where we are so we don't have to wander in and out tracking sticky mess
4 - take a cookie pan to place the comb on instead of trying to hand hold it or carrie it on a bucket lid. The cookie sheet will contain the mess better, plus we will be less likely to break the comb if it's fully supported.
5 - I need a better veil - mine isn't really suited for working above my head
6 - have all the empty frames prepared beforehand for tying the comb in. This includes already having the twine precut and attached. (or wires if we are going that route).
7 - Maybe  3rd vac for mess clean up. Can't clean up the mess with a vacuum already full of bees.
8 - Setup our comb tie in area closer to the actual cutout. less mess walking around with comb.
9 - Extra power cords
10 - learn how to use the bee vac to get the girls from between the combs. If we could remove ALL bees before attempting to cut comb, it would be a lot less messy. As it is, we can remove the bees from the side of the comb we can see, cut the comb, then hold the comb (dripping) while we remove the bees from the other side. Messy
11 head lamp mounted over my veil

updates

Checked a few hives last night.

Apricot swarm/sun barrel - building nicely (and straight) I had removed the stabilizers because they were a bit narrow. I made them wider and put them back on. I'll have to be careful when opening this one, If the burr-comb to the lild, when I open the lid it lifts the frames.

wax scales dropped on the bottom of the hive

Very happy with this one.

Lilac swarm (deer repelant). this swarm is also building nicely. lots of eggs. very calm bees.

Rosier split. This is the box that had the queen. She is laying nice and they are building new comb. Lots of bees. This is how a split should be. I also cut out a bit of comb with eggs in it to put in my queen box. I cut out about a 4 x 1 inch chunk and just attached it as one piece to the queen box. 

Tree Cutout - I was worried this one was queenless. But I found her last night and she's even started laying eggs. :)

House Cutout - these girls are ornery! Jerry speculated that perhaps they're ornery because I tied their comb in 90 degrees out from the way they had built it in the house. They don't know which way is up. Possible. Huge colony. Tons of brood. Tons. Building lots of comb too. Almost filled 5 mediums now.