No Child-bee Left Behind!
We received a call from some homeowners who told us they had a tree fall over in their backyard. When they went to look it over they noticed bees flying around. After a closer look they saw a lot of bees "gathered" on the bottom of the tree.
After we cleared away some of the surrounding brush the hive was more apparent.
There was another thing apparent too, can you tell what it is? The two white sacks hanging to the left of the hive are left over wax moth residue from a previous hive. We are thinking that the current hive we are dealing with has been there around two years. After completing the process we determined there had previously been a hive in the log as long ago as four years.
My husband chose a place, opposite the end with the bees, to start cutting the log into sections. While he cut Tony smoked the hive of bees to keep them calm. We were shockingly surprised that the bees were very very gentle. The entire time we were there cutting, working, tearing down the hive they never once buzzed our veils or hit us, and none of us got stung! Amazing!
While cutting the log we work our way closer to the hive. After making a partial cut we watched to see if any bees exit the cut opening. If bees start exiting the cut opening move back down the log away from the bees and make your final cut.
After cutting the log in half we moved it out so we could work with it. Then we cut about 1/3 of the top of the log on two sides so we could open it up.
Once we opened the log we could then see how large the hive was. Also, by seeing what old brittle comb and existing good comb there was, helped us determine how long this particular hive had inhabitted the log.
Now the fun begins. Tom had to determine which side was the top of the comb because the bees built the comb while the tree was standing upright. While he was cutting sections of the comb, Tony was putting rubber bands on empty frames. Tom put the comb in the frames and moved the rubber bands so the comb would stay in place. Tom then would lay the frames on top of the bees in the log and they would just climb on board.
We wound up with two deep boxes, the bottom box full and running over and the top box about 1/2 full. We taped it up and got it ready to move. And as the title of this blog says, Tom made sure there was no baby bee left behind.
After we cleared away some of the surrounding brush the hive was more apparent.
There was another thing apparent too, can you tell what it is? The two white sacks hanging to the left of the hive are left over wax moth residue from a previous hive. We are thinking that the current hive we are dealing with has been there around two years. After completing the process we determined there had previously been a hive in the log as long ago as four years.
My husband chose a place, opposite the end with the bees, to start cutting the log into sections. While he cut Tony smoked the hive of bees to keep them calm. We were shockingly surprised that the bees were very very gentle. The entire time we were there cutting, working, tearing down the hive they never once buzzed our veils or hit us, and none of us got stung! Amazing!
While cutting the log we work our way closer to the hive. After making a partial cut we watched to see if any bees exit the cut opening. If bees start exiting the cut opening move back down the log away from the bees and make your final cut.
After cutting the log in half we moved it out so we could work with it. Then we cut about 1/3 of the top of the log on two sides so we could open it up.
Once we opened the log we could then see how large the hive was. Also, by seeing what old brittle comb and existing good comb there was, helped us determine how long this particular hive had inhabitted the log.
Now the fun begins. Tom had to determine which side was the top of the comb because the bees built the comb while the tree was standing upright. While he was cutting sections of the comb, Tony was putting rubber bands on empty frames. Tom put the comb in the frames and moved the rubber bands so the comb would stay in place. Tom then would lay the frames on top of the bees in the log and they would just climb on board.
We wound up with two deep boxes, the bottom box full and running over and the top box about 1/2 full. We taped it up and got it ready to move. And as the title of this blog says, Tom made sure there was no baby bee left behind.
posted by Carola Thornton at 5/16/2006 04:23:00 PM
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