The first step was to put install a box between the bees and the outside world. In that the bee colony entry was about 14 feet up a wall, two large straight ladders were lashed together to make the A-frame to support the box. Next, while the bees were dormant, all of the entrances to the existing hive were filled with foam, except one. The main entrance was fitted with a one inch clear plastic tube and sealed in place with the same foam used to close the other entrances.
The thinking here is that the clear tube will provide a way to gauge how much traffic is occurring between the existing hive and the box for comparison with the amount of traffic going in and out of the box entry. If at any point the traffic to and from the box exceeds that going from the box to the wall, we will know that the bees are using the box for more than transit. If traffic to the wall ends but the bees are still active to and from the box, we will know our job is done.
For a brief but more illustrative presentation of the layout visit my small clip on YouTube.
