WILD bee hive!!!

[Cobleskill]

I know of 5 bee trees in the woods around me. One was a big old Red Oak on my property that tore out the root ball and tipped over. I cut the bee section out and set it up and guyed it off. Got some pictures I will post when the stepson will show me how.

 

[sotc]

interesting stuff

 

[Bermy]

Neat...
I saw an exposed hive over here in the summer...I didn't think much of it, but sounds like its not that common?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Bump......

How is that hive doing John ??
I know it's only February ....

 

[Mr. Sir]

That's awesome! Brian, you're better of eating local honey; healthwise, that is.

 

[thattreeguy]

got a big ball jar of honey from a job awhile back
my bil drained several thru cheesecloth
natures candy

 

[Ol' Hickory]

rainy bid day here.....few peeks of sun. I got a call for honey bees....I laughed, no way......hornets nest for sure! I ate crow on that one!!!!check it out!

totally exposed comb on the bottom of a oak 6"dia oak limb. Wierd! fellow beekeeper warned of africanized bees!!!

Any who.... climbed up and vacumed bees and cut the comb. Headed home for the transfer.....sunny one minute..pouring rain the next.

Bee inspector came along to see.......bees tested for"african" genes

bees have been "boxed". I rubber banded the comb into a normal frame

crap shoot for the winter though.....................

Nice pics.

Why would you keep them if they're africanized? Or do you think it's inevitable?

What state are you in?

 

[Ol' Hickory]

I started with one hive and I'm up to five now.

 

[SkwerI]

Cool, another honey bee guy on the forum.

John is in N.C., a bit south of you.

 

[Ol' Hickory]

Thanks Skwerl, I hope we never get the africanized ones.

 

[cory]

I found my first hive a couple days ago, in a red maple hollow that I didn't know was there till the crane landed it and I was cutting. Didn't see any bees anywhere. If this happens again, and I see some bees, what do i do to save them?

2011/DSC01761.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Is that YOU, C?

Edit = no, you're fiddy tree.

 

[brendonv]

Hey, Pat looks a little different.

 

[cory]

No, that's The Mik

 

[Ol' Hickory]

I found my first hive a couple days ago, in a red maple hollow that I didn't know was there till the crane landed it and I was cutting. Didn't see any bees anywhere. If this happens again, and I see some bees, what do i do to save them?

2011/DSC01761.View attachment 31126

I don't have any experience with rescuing feral hives. I would just keep the hive in as large of a piece as you can and call some beekeepers. http://www.ctbees.com/ Probably stuff the ends with a rag or something too.

 

[Mr. Sir]

Urban Beehive

 

[CurSedVoyce]

That is really cool..... But kinda makes my skin get the heebee jeebies

 

[stig]

Great idea.

It would have worked really well about 20 years ago, before beekeepers managed to spread diseases and parasites around.

Back then beekeeping was relatively easy, today just staying ahead of the Varroa mites is a lot of work.

 

[Frax]

We don't have wild honey bees here. Too cold. The open comb colonies are very cool to see. Thanks for the pics.

But we have plenty of vespid wasps. This is the biggest wasp nest i've ever seen. Right on top of a fence post. No zoom lens so I had to get right up close. They were not interested in me in the least though.


huge wasp nest by altacal, on Flickr

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Our first bee removal went fine.
I went back last night and stapled some screen over the entrance. Could not find another opening and went with it.
Some stragglers were all over it this morning and checked me out some.
I had finally got a hold of a bee keeper from our local conservatory office (ag) and he came out wiht his little flat bed to pick them up today.
I took the rest of the brush (crispy) off the tree, then rigged down the wood and hive.
We were going to try and set the hive vertical (turned out to be quite the log for his little truck ) and due to the small diameter of the cavity, and the fact his place was close by, he opted to transport the log horizontal and up right it at his place.
We tried to trim down the log some and lost a small portion of the hive. But the main part was saved.
These have got to be the most docile wild hives I have ever run into. The hive was about 2 years old. The only thing stopping them from being more like 15 plus feet of hive was an old squirrel nest that blocked them from going further south. I had the hive about figured out though. Top cut and bottom cut were right above and below prior to rigging the log down.
Here is some fodder. We are probably the only tree service that has taken the time to save a hive up here from the sounds of it...

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Made a couple of curf cuts to be sure and try to down size the log.. But they were all the way through it... Then swung the log out to his truck.
I have visitation rights (bring a hive here for the garden pollination) ... If the hive survives, I will probably end up with one if he makes more from it.
Scored some honey
Probably more work ...
Kids learned a lot about bees.....
No one got stung even once in two days... Really docile hive.. Amazed the heck out of everyone..

 

[MasterBlaster]

That is awesome. Any treeco I've ever worked with always opted to kill the poor things. Good on you!!!

 

[rskybiz]

Nice, love the fodder also!

 

[Bodean]

Nice work,Man.

We're doing one this Friday/Saturday. Three nests, Super punky large oak.
Not really looking forward to it. Either way.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I am looking forward to doing this again if a situation presents itself. Kind of wild sitting there in a small swarm of bees trying to suppress the instinct to swat at things. Having them on the face netting was a tad weird. But it was not all that bad. And if they make it, the feeling I will have from pulling this off is incredible. Bees are so vital and in such a bad state of late. This hive could add stronger genes to a species that are very much needed.