Bee Removal in Pineland, SC: A Honey Bee Colony Inside a Camper

On October 30 we drove out to Pineland, SC for a live honey bee removal with an unusual address: the front nose cap of a fifth-wheel camper.

A colony had moved in through a gap under the fiberglass cap and built a full nest on the underside of the plywood floor, right above the trailer tongue.

The fifth-wheel nose cap where the colony moved in.

The job at a glance
Location	Pineland, SC
Where the bees were	Inside the nose cap of a fifth-wheel camper
Brood saved	7 frames
Honey saved	3 frames, fed back to the colony
Queen	Caught, marked and released
Temperament	Calm
New home	Lowcountry Bee Works HQ apiary

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What we found

Once the bottom panel came off, the whole nest was exposed: long sheets of fresh, bright comb fanned across the plywood, with capped honey along the edges and a thick cluster of bees hanging below.

Fresh comb fanned across the plywood once the panel came off.

It was a healthy, well-established colony that had clearly been there a while.

The main cluster, before we started cutting out comb.

How the cut-out went

A cut-out means we remove the comb by hand, keep the bees alive, and take the whole colony home.

1. Open it up. We removed the bottom panel to get to the nest.

2. Save the brood. We cut out the brood comb and banded it into frames: 7 frames came out in good shape.

3. Save the honey. We kept 3 frames of honey to feed back as the colony settles in.

4. Catch the queen. We caught her in a queen clip so the colony stayed together.

5. Check for pests. We spotted a few small hive beetles, which is common in wild Lowcountry nests, and we're keeping an eye on them.

The queen, safe in a queen clip, ready for her new hive.

Where the bees are now

The colony now lives in a 10-frame Langstroth hive at our HQ apiary. The queen has been released and marked so we can find her easily.

We also combined them with another cut-out colony that had lost its queen, so the two together make one strong hive heading into winter.

Their new home at the LBW HQ apiary.

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We never kill the bees. Every colony we remove gets a new home in our apiary.

Bees in your camper, shed or wall?

Give us a call before you spray. Pricing starts at free and depends on the size of the colony and how far we travel.

Good to know: we remove the bees and comb, but we don't do structure or trailer repairs afterward.

Call (843) 870-0314

Lowcountry Bee Works · Yonges Island, SC · (843) 870-0314